


Legacy Of Roj Blake - On Ariens Wings - Book 2 - Part 2

by Lculley



Category: Blake's 7
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-03
Updated: 2019-10-03
Packaged: 2020-11-22 21:23:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 57,148
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20880905
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lculley/pseuds/Lculley
Summary: It  is  a  dark  time  for  the  rebellion,  John  Blake  is  missing  presumed  dead,  the  starship  Freedom  has  been  destroyed  by  the  forces  of  the  Terran  Federation  and  the  rebel  alliance  has  been  purged  from  many  of  the  inner  worlds.A  new  inspiration  is  needed  if  the  rebellion,  lead  by  Kerr  Avon  is  to  continue.    Unknown  to  the  Federation  a  new  leader  is  about  to  emerge,  one  that  contains  the  hope  of  humanity.On  the  planet  Wanta  that  leader  is  about  to  rise  from  the  ashes  of  defeat  and  set  about  the  downfall  of  the  Supreme  Commander  Jack  Nixon’s  Terran  Federation...





	Legacy Of Roj Blake - On Ariens Wings - Book 2 - Part 2

Copyright: Laurence Culley

LEGACY

OF

ROJ BLAKE

ON ARIENS WINGS

PART TWO

BASED ON THE TELEVISION

SERIES BLAKE'S SEVEN

BY TERRY NATION.

I DEDICATE THIS TO THE MEMORY

OF TERRY NATION.

Legacy Of Roj Blake

Chapter Ten

Rumours Of Blake

Kerr Avon and the rebellion have arrived on Merrica Prime to assist in re-building the planet, Samantha King and the crew of the Arien are preparing to leave.

Unknown to Kerr Logan, Supreme Commander Liza Ford is preparing her next step to finally get rid of him whilst busy reorganising the command structure of the Terran Federation.

With a need for supplies and the interception of an interesting communication, Kerr Logan and Liza Ford are set to clash once more…

The air was filled by burning hot plasma bolts as the Federation stormed the base, a woman with long dark hair hid inside what was once her quarters, occasionally firing on the ever advancing shock troopers. A friend of hers lay dead just feet from her door and another friend was stood by another doorway on the opposite side of the wide corridor, like the woman he fired at the Federation, hoping to give her covering fire so that she could escape but it was proving difficult. The half Auron looked around the room, she saw an open service duct in the corner, it was just the right size for her to crawl in to, she took a quick scan of the corridor, she saw a female officer throw something in her direction, it was small circular and black, the woman knew exactly what it was, it was a grenade, it bounced outside her room and suddenly spun through the door, parrying on the far wall and coming to rest by her boots and shoes cupboard, the hairs on the back of her neck stood on end, her heart raced, there was only two ways out of the room, one that lead into the corridor and into the hail of gunfire and the other way was the service duct, it didn’t take too long to decide, she took a deep breath and ran for the duct, dived into it, hurting her ribs in the process and scurried through it as fast as she could. Everything suddenly shook as the grenade went off, the walls blew outwards and the ceiling came crashing down, the walls of the duct buckled and caved in almost crushing the woman, she cried out before fazing in and out of consciousness before finally passing out. The woman woke with a start, her bed clothes were soaked through, sticking to her body as she sat up, her heart was racing, her breathing was deep and in heavy gasps as she came round to the idea that it was only a nightmare, although it depicted real events that happened over five months ago back on the Domserrat moon. Karla Ford turned to her bedside cabinet and activated her rooms lighting, once she could see the walls around her Karla began to relax, she swallowed hard, since that day she had never like being in enclosed rooms, it frightened the life out of her, she laid back and looked up at the ceiling,

“Everything is just fine, just fine,” she told herself.

Kerr Avon stood on the flight deck of the Arien, his eyes scanning the large control room, searching for but not finding Orac, one thing he did notice, placed in the corner of the flight deck was the flight computer, he smirked and walked over to it, it looked incredibly familiar,

“What is it?” Ironside asked, who was sat at the communications control board,

“This computer, what is its designation?” Avon enquired,

“Slave,” Ironside replied to Avon’s amusement,

“HOW MAY I HELP YOU SIR?” Slave asked, thinking that Ironside’s reply to Avon was a request,

Kerr Avon smirked, it sounded just like it did when it was on Scorpio,

“So someone took you from the remains of Scorpio and fitted you on this crate?”

“IT IS BEYOND MY MEMORY BANKS TO VALIDATE WHAT YOU SAY MASTER,”

“Of coarse it is Slave,” Avon said dryly as he turned to Ironside,

“Where is Orac?” He asked,

“In a safe place,” Roxy said as she walked into the flight deck before Ironside could speak,

“Really?” Avon asked as he turned to the young blonde, from the last time he had seen her back on Septer Prime, he could see a big change in her, unlike before she had confidence and a steel in her green eyes,

“To keep it safe whilst we are planet side,” Roxy stated firmly,

“Very wise,” Avon agreed before taking one last look at the Slave computer, grinned and walked out of the flight deck and toward the entry ramp where he met Samantha King as she walked towards the Arien, she was smiling, within the large hanger next to the Arien was four large supply ships with crewers working hard delivering much need supplies to Merrica Prime,

“I must again thank you for what you are doing,” Samantha said as she approached Avon,

Avon smiled as he looked around the hanger,

“I am grateful that you have allowed the survivors from the Septer Prime incident to live on your world, it was becoming a very big problem for us,”

“As long as they help my planet they are welcome,” Samantha replied calmly, turning back towards the Arien,

“I am sure that I can trust you on my peoples well being,” she said as the two of them stopped the old rebel ships entry ramp,

“Remember your highness, it is your government that is running this relief effort, all I’m interested in is that Merrica Prime, once it is ready will side with the rebellion if called upon,” Avon said flatly,

“That is what we agreed,” Samantha replied,

“My people owe you a dept of gratitude Avon and they will repay you, you have my word on that,” the Princess added resolutely as she offered Avon her hand,

“I’ll leave you to it,”

Avon seemed reluctant to take Samantha’s hand but out of respect, he gently took it,

“Your world is in safe hands,” he said firmly, his narrow eyes almost piercingly cold, almost unnerving,

“Thank you again,” Samantha said as she stepped up the ramp, leaving Avon to turn and step away from the ship before take off.

Princess Samantha stepped into the flight deck where the other members of the Arien’s crew sat waiting in their flight seats,

“Ready when you are,” Samantha said as she took her seat,

“Right,” Logan said as he brushed his hands over the flight control board,

“Slave, initiate launch sequence,” he ordered,

“YES MASTER, ALL SYSTEMS ARE FULLY FUNCTIONAL, WE ARE GREEN ON ALL FLIGHT SYSTEMS,” the computer announced,

“Let’s go then,” Logan said as he sat back and let the flight computer take the Arien up and off of the planet.

Supreme Commander Liza Ford stood in front of a mirror, she was wearing a long, tight fitting ankle length white dress that had the Federation insignia embossed in silver across her breasts, it was a new outfit, one that was especially made for her, like the similarly designed one piece jump-suit that hung on a hanger over the door of her new dressing room, she wasn’t sure that the dress was appropriate for military service but Nixon had told her that she didn’t need to wear the standard issue uniform ever again, she took a deep breath as her door chime sounded, Liza was about to call ‘enter’ when she remembered that, for a Supreme Commander it wasn’t a procedure that was recommended. Liza Ford walked across her dressing room and into her main quarters, she stopped by her work desk and ran her hand over the intercom control that was perched beside her computer terminal,

“Yes?”

“This is Commander Williams, Supreme Commander,”

“Enter,” 

The door opened as Liza returned to her dressing room, Cory stepped inside and stopped as the door closed behind her, she couldn’t see Liza Ford anywhere,

“Supreme Commander?” She called out,

“In the dressing room,” Liza called back,

Cory smiled and headed to the small adjoining room, she saw Liza Ford standing by her mirror and took a deep breath,

“May I say that you look fantastic,”

“Thank you,” Liza said softly, almost finding herself blushing, Cory had always made advances on her, even more so now that Maxin Fox, the girl from Saurian Major had left her, at times Liza found herself wondering what it would be like if she gave in to Cory’s attentions but her overriding morality would tell her that it was wrong and degrading,

“I’m just wondering if it would be suitable to wear while on duty,” Liza said as she turned to Cory,

“I would say that it is Supreme Commander,” Cory responded with a smile,

“Thank you again Cory. One thing, stop calling me Supreme Commander,” Liza ordered, sounding fed up with it already,

“Certainly, Supreme Commander,” Cory Williams replied with a teasing smile.

Liza took a deep breath and headed to door, she stopped in front of Cory and smiled,

“Trust you to follow protocol,” she said with a smile before walking passed the Space Commander,

“It is just my way Supreme Commander,” Cory Williams replied as her eyes followed her superior officer into the main quarters.

Lyle Ironside was sat at the communications control board, Logan had placed him on com-watch detail, Logan wanted to make sure that the new rebel frequency de-scrambler was operating as Avon boasted that it would, Ironside let out a bored sigh, he had been sitting at the controls for almost an hour and yet he had not intercepted one transmission, Roxy and Samantha were just finishing clear up their food utensils after eating together, as Samantha was placing their plates onto a dish cleaning machine, Roxy asked,

“So, your the last of your royal line?”

“Unfortunately,” the Princess replied sombrely,

“So, no cousins or family off world, married to other prince’s or princesses?” The blonde questioned,

“No, the Federation hunted all royal families, I believe they left some whose worlds are too primitive to concern them, but my family would not have chosen to bond with families from those worlds,” Samantha said as she turned to her younger friend,

Roxy nodded, she tilted her head as a thought came to mind,

“Princess Samantha King, strange that your last name would be king, considering you will be queen soon?” She asked,

“King is not my last name, I took it on when Chifar smuggled me off world, I couldn’t use my family name, it would stand out,” Samantha answered with a smile,

“Family name?” Roxy enquired,

“Yes,” the dark haired woman replied as she walked to the door, having finished sorting out the eating utensils,

“My family are descendants from the last royal family of Earth, who were forced to leave by the Federation when they took full control of the Earth and the colonies on the moon and Mars, my last name is Windsor,”

“Windsor, Samantha Windsor, sounds very royal,” Roxy stated with a smile as she followed the young royal,

“When I was a little girl, I always wanted to be a princess, when my friends and I played I was always the princess, no matter what the game was,” Roxy reminisced,

Samantha chuckled,

“And there is me who hated it, the rules, the pomp and ceremony, not being able to play with who I wanted, do what I wanted and go there I wanted to go, I may have had a privileged life, but it came with some many restrictions,”

Roxy understood her point of view,

“As a kid, you never see that side of things,” she said,

“So true,” Samantha signed, with the short time she had known Roxy, Samantha felt that she could call this woman friend,

“I miss my family,” she added softly,

“I’m sorry,” Roxy replied apologetically,

“You have nothing to be sorry about,” Samantha replied as she looked at Roxy’s clothing,

“Except maybe your lack of clothing, starting to get a bit threadbare,” She said as she took Roxy’s wrist and looked at the cuff of her white blouse,

“I know” Roxy grumbled with a half smile as the two woman entered the flight deck,

“You can borrow some of mine if it’s becoming a problem,” Samantha said to Roxy who stopped and gestured to her body,

“Somehow, I do not think that your clothes will fit me, your legs are longer than mine and I’m just a little bigger than you on top,” the blonde woman replied with an amused smile,

“I offered,” Samantha resigned as she turned to Ironside, who was yawning in his seat,

“Anything to report yet?” She asked,

“Not a thing,” Ironside said, sounding as bored as he looked,

“But now you’re here, I’m going to get myself something to drink,” he said as he rose to his feet,

“But you’re on watch detail,” Roxy reminded him,

“You take over,” Ironside suggested as he headed towards the exit,

“No way,” Roxy said, shaking her head,

“It is up to you,” Ironside responded before leaving the flight deck,

“Ironside,” Roxy shouted after him,

He didn’t reply, Roxy let out a sigh and turned to Princess Samantha,

“I guess that I’d better take over watch, Kerr will hit the roof if he finds out that no one was on watch detail,”

“Rather you than me,” Samantha said with a victorious smile, feeling glad that it wasn’t her, knowing how boring the whole job was.

Roxy took to the communications control and checked over the instruments, not one transmission was indicated, as the blonde made herself comfortable in the flight seat the com-system came alive with a fragmented call,

“This is Howar……..to Preporta rebel control, stage one…….lete,

moving on to……..two, thank John Blake for me, I will report…….”

The communication fell into static, Roxy turned to Samantha who was staring back at her,

“John Blake,” Roxy said with a frown,

“He’s alive,” she added,

“I can bet you all the money that I have that Logan will be interested in this,” Samantha said as she put her hands on her hips,

“I don’t doubt it,” Roxy replied before hitting the internal comlink button,

“Kerr, could you come to the flight deck please?” 

Liza Ford sat in her new office, across the table from her were the two Federation officers that she trusted most, Space Commanders Cory Williams and Miles Drayson,

“I’m glad that you could make it, I know that you both have been very busy lately so I will keep this as short as possible,” Liza said as she made herself comfortable in the big white chair,

“It is a responsibility of a Supreme Commander to employ an officer as an executive officer, to act on my behalf at the times when I am not present,” Liza went on as Cory and Drayson sat listening intently to their Supreme Commander,

“It is standard policy to have one executive officer, but with you two doing so well I am about to change that. Looking carefully at your service records I have decided to employ you both as my executive officers,” Liza announced,

“Two of us?” Cory asked, sounding surprised, such a thing was unheard of in the Federation,

“No disrespect to Drayson Supreme Commander, operating on that kind of basis could lead to trouble,” she said as she rested her hand on Drayson’s wrist, hoping that he understood that it wasn’t anything personal,

“I am aware that having you two serving within the same place could be difficult,” Liza said calmly,

“You could say that again,” Drayson put in, agreeing with his fellow Space Commander,

“However, you two will be working in different areas of the Federation,” Liza stated as she stood up and walked to her window,

“Cory, I want you to work within Space Command, where you will act for me when I am not here, if I remember rightly that is what you did when you acted as Nixon’s executive, am I right?”

“That is right,” Cory replied firmly,

“Good. Drayson will work as fleet commander of the Galactic Eighth Fleet, unless of course I am onboard its command ship. Only during the monthly meetings that we will have will you two meet, hopefully that should be to everybody’s best interests,” Liza said as she turned and faced her executive officers,

“Any questions?” She asked,

“Just one Supreme Commander, You are saying that I am in command of the Eighth Fleet, yet unless you know differently that fleet has still not been replaced since Operation Freedom?” Drayson said, sounding concerned that he will have to wait before beginning his new commission, Cory nodded in agreement,

Liza turned her attention outside her Space Command office window, she smiled as she saw a large mass of twenty-five warships orbiting the station and she let out an appreciative sigh,

“Your fleet awaits you Space Commander Drayson,” Liza said as she gestured outside.

Both Drayson and Cory rose to their feet and walked to the window, standing either side of the Supreme Commander, both looked in awe as they saw the fleet,

“I made sure that the Galactic Eighth Fleet was up and running as soon as possible, I was not going to have a Federation military force under my command without having its flagship fleet,” Liza Ford said with pride. 

Kerr Logan stood by the communications board, Roxy had replayed the message to him and he looked surprised as he smiled,

“So, Blake is alive,” he said as he turned to the Slave computer,

“Slave, where is Preporta?”

“THE PLANET PREPORTA IS A LARGE NEUTRAL PLANET WITHIN THE HEART OF SECTOR SIX, TO MY DATABASE, IT IS A PLANET THAT HAS A GRADE FIVE ECONOMY, AND IT IS USED ON OCCASIONS BY THE NEUTRAL PLANETS CONFEDERATION FOR CONFERENCES, THAT IS ALL I KNOW OF THE PLANET MASTER, I REALLY DO HOPE THAT THE INFORMATION IS SATISFACTORY,” Slave grumbled,

“Thank you Slave,” Logan said as he turned to the others,

“It sounds promising enough,” Ironside said as he crossed his arms,

“It could be a trap,” Danial Carson said bitterly,

“I hate to admit this but I agree with Danial,” Roxy said with regret,

Logan gave her a shocked look as Samantha said,

“It could be but if I know Preporta, they will not tolerate Federation forces going to their world,”

“You know the place?” Logan asked,

“Yes, Preporta once had a royal family of its own until the people decided that they wanted to become a republic,” Samantha replied as she remembered the times she had visited the planet when her parents done their best in having her marry one of the planets young princes, she had refused because of the fact that he was an untidy slob,

“What is it like there?” Roxy asked,

“Not bad, you can get almost anything you want on Preporta, it has a flourishing economy and it is safe, Preporta has the third largest military force in the known worlds, with only the rebellion and the Federation being larger,” Samantha said calmly,

“Are you saying that it could be safe for us?” Roxy asked,

“It might well be, if we go there we could re-supply the ship and take some time to unwind, I’m beginning to think that we need it,” Samantha replied as she turned to Danial,

“That’s it then, we are going,” Logan said as he turned to the flight computer,

“Slave, set a course to Preporta, maximum available speed,” he ordered,

“YES MASTER, IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE YOU REQUIRE OF ME?” Slave responded,

“No thank you Slave,” Logan said as Roxy rose to her feet,

“Do you think its wise to go there, we don’t know if the Federation picked up that transmission,” she protested, not liking the idea of going to Preporta at all,

“We are going Roxy, you need that focal transmitter gem to get the teleport finally working and by what Samantha told me you are in need of some more clothes, and so am I, so we will go to Preporta and get the supplies we need, if Blake is there that will be a bonus,” Logan replied as he headed out of the flight deck,

“You once told me that you don’t need Blake,” Roxy countered as she followed Logan out of the flight deck, leaving the others still standing around the communications controls,

Logan stopped and faced Roxy,

“It is not a case of needing Blake, I would just like to speak to him that is all,” Logan stated firmly, looking Roxy right in the eye,

“What about?” Roxy asked,

“Fighting this war,” Logan replied as he continued down the corridor,

“What has made you want to fight the Federation Logan, why are you so determined to win this war single handedly?” Roxy shouted after him,

Logan stopped and turned back to her,

“The Federation must fall, we will all benefit from it when it does, I have to fight it,”

“But not alone,” Roxy interrupted,

“Avon made an offer for us to join him, I still think that you should have accepted it,” she added forcefully,

“I can’t do what I want to do if I had joined him,” Logan said fiercely,

“You’re beginning to sound just like Blake,” Roxy snapped,

“I am nothing like Blake,” Logan countered, sounding offended,

“This war must end, I’ve had enough of it already but I know that I cannot just run and hide, the Federation will find me eventually, the safest thing to do is fight and that is what I will do, with or without your backing Roxy,” Logan shouted before turning and marching away from the blonde as she stood still, watching Logan walk away from her, he had never shouted at her like that before, it scared her enough to make her shake all over, Roxy took a couple of calming deep breaths before turning to the flight deck.

Karla Ford walked towards the flight deck of the rebel starship Orion, she was met by a tall and lean young man who wore the same standard issue green alliance uniform that she wore, he stopped her from going any further into the ship,

“Yes, what do you want?” He asked forcefully,

Karla knew he was joking, they knew each other well, the half Auron smirked and played along with him,

“I’m here to see Blake, if that is all right with you?”

“I’ll have to search you first,” he said firmly,

Karla’s smile widened, she knew how Christian Walker felt for her, having empathic abilities was sometimes helpful,

“Are you sure you have to search me?” Karla asked innocently,

“Standard operating procedure I’m afraid,” Walker said, still playing with the woman,

“Is there anything I can do to change your mind?” Karla asked suggestively,

“I’m sure that there is something you can do for me,” Walker said with a teasing smile,

“I bet,” Karla said as she began to walk passed Walker,

“Hey?” Walker protested as he took Karla gently by the arm,

“What about that something?”

“I’m afraid that I’m not in the mood, I’ll let you know when I am.”

Christian Walker smiled and pointed towards the front of the ship,

“Blake is in the flight deck,” he said before walking in the opposite direction,

Karla smirked as she walked to the flight deck, Walker was only in his early twenties, a good thirteen years Karla’s junior, it was flattering to know that she could still raise interest from younger men. Karla Ford entered the control room, she scanned the small room and saw John Blake operating the flight systems with a young woman who had waist length curled brunette hair, a slim body with almost perfect curves that were held in a skin tight sleeveless black rubber cat-suit, she wore a pair of knee high spiked heeled leather boots and a gun belt around her very slim waist, Karla was the straightest woman around, a true lover of men but she had to admit that this woman was incredibly beautiful, the woman was a pilot for hire which was something that didn’t sit well with Karla, but she came with glowing references from Avalon and Del Grant who both described her as being the best pilot they had ever had the pleasure to fly with, her name was Darla Danay,

“That is how the ships systems should operate, I told you the ship needed a service and its drives re-stressed,” Darla said with confidence,

Blake had to admit that Darla was right, the freighter was operating far better since she arrived than it ever had done before,

“I must remember not to argue with you again,” Blake said as he saw Karla walking towards him,

“When it comes to starships and starship piloting there is only one person better than me in this galaxy and that is the man who trained me,” Darla boasted,

“And who might that be?” Blake asked,

“Kerr Logan,” Darla said as she prepped the drives for launch,

“You knew Logan?” Blake enquired,

“Yes I did but not as well as I’d like,” Darla said with a wicked flash in her brown eyes and a suggestive grin, clearly she held a torch for Logan,

“We must talk about it some time,” Blake said as he turned to Karla,

“You were going to leave without saying goodbye?” Karla asked as she joined Blake’s side,

“I didn’t plan on doing so,” Blake replied defensively,

“I’ve just received my orders from Avalon, I’ll be off within the next hour,” he told his old comrade and former lover,

“Where are you going?” Karla asked,

Blake brown eyes flashed with regret,

“I cannot tell you Karla,”

“Come on, you can trust me,” Karla said insistently,

“I’m sorry Karla I can’t, orders are orders,” Blake replied as he continued to check the flight systems,

“Then I’ll come with you,” Karla offered,

“You can’t,” John Blake said as he took Karla gently by her shoulders,

“You are needed here,” he stated firmly,

“And besides you don’t need me around you anymore, you have become a good leader in your own right,” he said as he looked Karla in the eye,

Karla gave a resigned smile,

“Okay Blake, I’d better go, I’ve got things to do,” she said gravely,

“Take good care of yourself Blake,” Karla said as she gave her former leader a warm hug,

“You take care of yourself too, I want to see you again,” Blake said as he held Karla close, bringing back memories of when they shared more than just a cause.

Liza Ford was sat at her desk as the intercom chime sounded,

“Supreme Commander Ford,” she said firmly,

“Ma’am, you have an external call coming in, it is coded for your attention only,” came the reply,

“Thank you,” Liza replied before hitting the communication button and selecting a secure line,

“Supreme Commander Liza Ford speaking,”

“You may be the Supreme Commander Liza but you are still my little girl,”

“Father,” Liza gasped, hearing his voice gave her a lift,

“How are you and mother doing?” She asked, wanting to know everything that was happening at home,

“Your mother and I are fine Liza, I had just heard of your promotion so I thought I’d give my little girl a call,” her father said with a sense of joy and pride in his words,

“Your mother and I are very proud of you, but we were surprised that you did not call us with the great news,”

“I tried dad but things have been busy for me, if I had the time I would have done,” Liza said apologetically,

“You must come back to Earth some time, we miss having your company,” Liza heard her mother call out,

“I will, I promise,” Liza said with a smile.

Suddenly Liza’s door chime rang out,

“I’m sorry dad, I’ve got to go, I’ll call you some time tonight, okay?”

“Be sure that you do Liza, take care of yourself,” her father said,

“Give mum my love,” Liza instructed warmly,

“I will do,” her dad replied before the communication cut off,

Liza straightened in her chair and hit the intercom button,

“Who is it?” She asked,

“Captain Carringdon, Supreme Commander,” was the well-spoken reply,

“Enter,” Liza commanded.

The office door opened and a woman that was dressed smartly in her black uniform who had short, cropped blonde hair and slate grey eyes marched in,

“Yes Captain Carringdon, how may I help you,” Liza asked as she offered the Captain the chair opposite her,

Carringdon excepted the offer and made herself comfortable,

“We have intercepted a partial transmission that was directed to the planet Preporta, it was barely readable except for a few words, and a name,” the woman from Saurian Major stated firmly,

“And the name is?” Liza questioned, feeling curious to why this was being brought to her attention when the likes of Cory of Drayson could handle such a matter,

“The name was John Blake,” officer Carringdon replied,

“Blake, what about him?”

“It seemed to be a message thanking Blake for some advice or help that he gave, by the coding of the transmission it was sent recently,” blonde woman answered,

“So, Blake did survive, I am glad you brought this to my attention,” Liza said as she rose out of her chair and walked around her table,

“Thank you Carringdon, this is information that I must act on immediately,” Liza said as she gestured to the door, 

Captain Carringdon stood up and headed to the door, Liza walked with her,

Carringdon headed out to continue with her duties as Liza walked back to her desk, she stopped and glanced out of her window,

“If we intercepted that transmission then there is a likelihood of Logan hearing it too, meaning that he could be on route to Preporta right now,”

Liza smiled as she hit her communication controls and selected the secure, direct line to the Galactic Eighth Fleet and to Space Commander Miles Drayson, he was the person who responded to her call,

“Yes Supreme Commander?”

“I want you to take the fleet to the planet Preporta, there you should expect the arrival of Kerr Logan and the Arien, the planets government might not appreciate you being there so inform them that you are on manoeuvres, that should hold them off for a while and from making any approach to the fleet,” Liza ordered,

“At once Supreme Commander,”

“Thank you Commander Drayson, transmission ends,” Liza said as she straightened and watched Drayson’s fleet, after a short while the fleet began to move, still remaining in formation, something that brought a smile to Liza Ford’s lips.

Space Commander Miles Drayson stood on the command deck of the Marauder, he watched the forward monitors as Supreme Command Headquarters peeled away to port,

“Navigation commander, set a course to the planet Preporta in sector six, inform all ships,” Drayson commanded as he took his seat that overlooked the whole command deck,

“At once sir,” was the navigational commanders reply,

“Drive command, stand by for maximum speed,”

“Standing by,”

Space Commander Drayson touched the inter-fleet communications control,

“This is Space Commander Drayson to all commands, maximum speed to sector six on my mark,” he ordered,

Drayson nodded to his ships Captain, it was the signal to move out,

“This is Captain Neville to all commands, mark,” the Captain commanded,

Miles Drayson sat back with a satisfied smile, the crew of his command ship had obeyed his orders without question, as did the crews of the warships of the fleet. With a sudden surge of speed, the fleet jumped from real space into time distort and towards their destination, Preporta.

The Arien arrived over Preporta, its drive system slowed as the old beat up luxury cruiser moved into orbit one thousand spacials above the planets surface. Kerr Logan rose from his flight seat and turned to Samantha who was sat at the communications controls,

“Let them know we are here, and why we are here,” Logan ordered,

“Should I tell them that we are here searching for Blake or just to do a bit of shopping?” Samantha asked sarcastically with a hint of a smile,

“Shopping Samantha,” Logan replied as she turned to Roxy,

“No problems so far,” he said with a smile,

“We haven’t left yet,” Roxy replied gravely,

“Trust me Roxy,” Logan said with sarcasm, as Samantha King called in to Preporta space command,

“This is the privateer starship the Arien, requesting landing permission,”

“This is Space Command to the Arien, what is your reason for your visit?”

“We are here with the purpose of requiring supplies,” Samantha answered as she turned to Logan, who was now walking around the flight deck before coming to a stop in front of Slave,

“Starship Arien, please transmit your registry code,”

“Transmission commencing,” Samantha said as she pressed a send button,

“I hope this fools them,” Samantha said to Logan,

“It will do, it worked on Saint Portia Major didn’t it?” Logan said flatly, giving the Princess a hard glare,

“Starship Arien, you are cleared for landing, set your landing beacon to channel seven, you have access to landing platform twenty two, enjoy your stay,”

“Thank you,” Samantha said as she cut off the communication and set the frequency to channel seven, a repetitive tone sounded,

“Slave, lock on to that signal and take the ship down,” Logan ordered as he turned to the computer,

“YES MASTER,” Slave obeyed,

“We’re going down,” Danial announced as he looked up from the navigational control board,

“Good,” Logan said as he headed out of the flight deck,

“I still think that this is a bad idea,” Roxy said sombrely,

“You don’t have as much control over Logan as you obviously thought you did,” Danial snapped as he sat back,

“I’m not after control Danial,” Roxy Davis pointed out,

“You could have fooled me,” Danial countered.

Kerr Logan entered his cabin and locked the door behind him, he stretched and rolled his head from side to side until his neck cracked, he felt very tired and very fed up, the strain of leadership was finally catching up with him, he had raised his voice to Roxy, something that had never happened before, although he was known for taking his frustration out on his crew he would never usually shout, things could be better, time was running out on him, he had to get rid of the Federation fast, at the moment he wasn’t sure if he was up for the job. Logan heard a sound directly behind him, he spun around to see Confusers standing by the door,

“What the hell are you doing here?” Logan snapped,

“I was going to ask you the same thing,” Confusers said calmly,

“If you are all knowledgeable as you claim to be you should know,”

Logan retorted as he walked towards his bed,

“I know why you are here, you are searching for Blake,” Confusers said as he followed Logan,

“Then why ask?” Logan snapped as he sat on his bed, giving Confusers an angered look,

“I want to know why you are here, because you shouldn’t be here,” the entity said as he sat next to Logan,

“Where am I supposed to be?” Logan asked,

“Not here,” Confusers replied,

“Then where?” Logan questioned,

“I cannot tell you that,” Confusers said with an amused smile,

“If I told you that it would effect the time line,” he explained,

“You can’t tell me where I’m supposed to be but you tell me that I shouldn’t be here, what am I supposed to do? You’ve got to give me more than that,” Logan countered,

“If I tell you more the Circle Of infinity will know that I have been here, helping you and that may spell the end of mankind without it having a chance to fight back, to prove my colleagues wrong,” Confusers stated forcefully,

“I couldn’t care less, if you are not willing to give me more then I might as well give up because there is no way that I can win the war on my own,” Logan shouted as he rose to his feet and walked over to his window, he was angry and frustrated,

“That is the only way you will win this war, being with the rebellion will only hamper your progress which has been slow enough as it is,” Confusers said as his eyes followed the human,

“Tell me how I’m supposed to do it then, I can’t see how,” Logan said as he turned to the entity,

“You know I cannot, for the reasons that I have just told you, you have to win this on your own,”

“How do I know that this isn’t just one big elaborate trick?” Logan

questioned,

“You want proof?” Confusers asked,

“Yes,” Logan demanded,

“Fine, we will go to the planet Zolaf Four, four years into the future,” Confusers said as the surroundings changed from being inside Logan’s room to standing on the planets surface, Logan looked around him, the planet looked to have been fried, the grass was black, buildings were nothing but rubble and the air was thick with a horrid smelling gas, Logan stepped forward but stopped when he noticed he was standing by a large trench,

“Be careful Kerronovich, this was a landing platform, number twenty six if I recall,” Confusers warned,

Logan looked over the barren landscape, he let out a deep breath,

“What the hell happened here?” Logan asked, sounding shocked,

“This is what will happen to Zolaf Four if you fail to remove the Federation, all the other worlds in mans small empire will fall the same way,”

“How many people died here?” Logan asked weakly,

“Twelve million, give or take a hundred or two,” 

“How?” Logan asked,

“A death ray, something like that?” Confusers guessed,

“You mean you don’t know?” Logan enquired,

“It is a choice of a number of ways, I cannot be specific,” Confusers stated calmly,

“You see it could be a completely different method if and when the time comes,” he added,

“But this will happen?” Logan asked,

“To all planets?” he added,

“Yes Kerronovich, this is the fate of your people if you ignore my warnings. You must fight the Federation alone, that is the only way you can beat them,”

“But when?” Logan shouted, he’d had enough of this secrecy, if man was going to be eliminated he wanted to know everything that there was to know about it and if he could do something to stop this kind of destruction he wanted to know how and when he was to do it,

“Soon, the time will be soon, but it will only come around once, so take it when it arrives,”

“How will I know when it has arrived?”

“You will know,” Confusers said reassuringly, understanding Logan’s concerns after seeing the same thing in other species that he created just before they were destroyed, hopefully man would not follow them into oblivion, he hoped that he had created man better than that.

Karla Ford entered the small command room that had once been the living room of a cheap flat that was in the heart of the city,

“Karla, we picked up some traffic transmissions only a few minutes ago, I think you may be interested in them,” a short dark skinned man with curly brown hair who wore a grey and green boiler-suit called,

“Oh, what is it?” Karla asked curiously,

“It was a request for landing clearance, by a ship calling itself the privateer starship the Arien,” he answered,

“The Arien? That is Kerr Logan’s ship isn’t it?” She asked,

“That is right,” he said as he replayed the message,

Karla listened carefully, the woman’s voice wasn’t one she recognised, she nodded as the landing platform number was relayed to the Arien,

“That is where I’m going, well done Olivette,” Karla said with a smile as she looked into his dazzling brown eyes,

“First Blake, now Logan, who said being on this planet was going to be boring?” She said with a smile as the half Auron, half human walked to the stairs that lead to the front door, grabbing her beige heavy rain coat in the process,

“You’re going alone?” Olivette asked as he followed Karla down the stairs,

“Yes, I am. On Perporta I am quite safe,” Karla replied as she opened the door and stepped into the busy street almost knocking one child of her push bike,

“Safe are you, you step onto the street and nearly get run over,” Olivette laughed as Karla headed down the street, pulling her long heavy coat over her shoulders and around her athletic body,

“You are in charge until I get back,” she called out over her shoulder.

As the Arien descended into the planets atmosphere, the area of space around the planet Perporta suddenly became thick with starships as Space Commander Miles Drayson’s Galactic Eighth Fleet came out of time distort. Miles Drayson rose out of his command seat and stepped closer to the forward view screen, the planet didn’t look too special, very Earth like but with more greens and less blues, he turned to his communications commander,

“Contact our garrison on Perporta, inform them of my arrival,”

“Yes sir,” the communications commander replied before walking to a com-bank and relaying the command to his officers, very shortly he returned to Drayson with a report,

“Sir, we have just received a call from Perporta space command, asking why we are here,”

“Let them know that we are on manoeuvres and that we will be here doing training drills for the next few days,” Drayson ordered, knowing full well that telling Perporta space command the truth could incite a war, and a war with Perporta has never been a good idea knowing that they have one of the largest battle fleets in the galaxy,

“Yes sir,” the commander replied before returning to his post,

Miles Drayson turned to Captain Neville,

“I will be off to our garrison on Perporta, the fleet is yours,”

“Yes sir,” the Captain said as he took a standing position by Drayson’s command seat as the Space Commander walked to the transit chutes,

“This is Captain Neville to all commands, deploy the fleet, be on the look

out for the starship Arien, its details are on file, if it is spotted, inform me immediately,” the Captain ordered as he sat on Drayson’s chair and made himself comfortable.

Karla Ford stepped closer to the Arien as the ships landing ramp began to lower, the telepath scanned the landing bay, apart from two engineers who were playing cards over a fuel barrel there was no one else present, Karla turned back to the Arien, the ship matched the reports that Karla had read, she hoped that she was right. The first crew member began to descend the ramp, it was Kerr Logan, he scanned the interior of the landing bay but came to an abrupt stop when he saw Karla standing by the exit,

“It can’t be,” he said as he walked toward the tall, dark haired woman, it became clear to Logan that it was the woman that he had left for dead on Domserrat,

“Karla Ford,” Logan said with a smile as he offered her his hand as they walked towards each other,

“I hoped it was you that my communications officer had intercepted,” Karla said as she excepted Logan’s welcome,

“Intercepted?” Logan enquired, sounding concerned,

“Yeah, when you called Perporta space command to acquire landing clearance. We monitor all external com channels,” Karla explained,

“By what I’ve been hearing you have got yourself a big reputation Logan, or at least going by what Blake has told me,” Karla added with a smile,

“Who would have thought it, Kerr Logan, the cold hearted, mean spirited ex-space pirate and smuggler becoming a well known rebel leader and a respected one at that,” the half Auron commented as Roxy stepped down the ramp and immediately saw them,

“Karla,” she called out,

“Hi Roxy, how are you doing?” Karla asked as the blonde woman approached,

“I thought you were dead,” Roxy said as she gave Karla a big hug,

“It was a close run thing, if you had sealed the service duct that you had been working from just before the Federation attack I would probably be dead, but I was able to escape the room before the grenade went off, although it took me some time before I could get out of the duct considering that it almost collapsed on me, but once I was out of the duct I killed one of the Federation shock troopers, stole his uniform and left on one of the Federation shuttle craft, which I later stole for my get away and now I’m here, giving my time for the rebellion once more,” Karla explained as she broke away from the hug and looked at the Arien,

“Not much of a ship is it?”

“Not really, but it does the job,” Logan said as he looked at the Arien,

“So you have spoken to Blake recently?” Logan asked as he turned his attention back to Karla,

“Yeah, this morning as it happens,” Karla replied with a smile,

“So Blake is alive?” Roxy asked, sounding surprised,

“Oh yeah, he guessed that you two landed on Wanta when the three of you had abandoned the Freedom, he landed on Helotix,” Karla replied,

“Is he still here?” Logan questioned,

“Not now, he left just a few hours ago on a secret mission for Avalon,”

“Damn,” Logan cursed, “And I needed to talk to him,” he added,

“You’re too late,” Karla said at the same time as Danial Carson stepped down the ramp,

“Well isn’t this a lovely reunion?” Danial said sarcastically,

“Not you again?” Karla cursed, recognising the former Federation officer immediately,

“That is what I was going to say about you,” Danial countered as he turned to Logan,

“Is Blake here?”

“No, we just missed him,” Roxy replied,

“So, we go then,” Danial said as he turned to the Arien,

“No, we stay, we’ve got some supplies to get hold of,” Logan stated firmly as he turned to Karla,

“We need to get hold of some electrical, food and clothing supplies, I hope that you can tell me were we can get them from?”

“Sure thing, this way,” Karla said as she gestured to the exit,

“Roxy, get Samantha and Ironside,” Logan ordered,

“Sure,” Roxy replied as she turned to the ship,

“And another thing Roxy, hide Orac in the compartment you built, I do not want that going missing while we are here,”

Roxy nodded as she entered the ship. 

Miles Drayson entered the office of Base Commander Neles, who was a tall man with greying black hair and narrow deep set eyes, he smiled as he greeted the Space Commander,

“This is an unexpected pleasure Space Commander, I wasn’t aware that I was going to be inspected,” Neles said,

“That is not why I am here Base Commander, I am here on the likelihood of the starship Arien arriving here,” Drayson explained as he sat opposite Neles,

“Would you like some wine Commander?” Neles said, gesturing to a decanter of red wine that sat on his desk besides two glasses,

“No thank you, I might remind you that drinking while on duty is frowned upon by Supreme Commander Liza Ford,” Drayson pointed out,

“Most certainly,” Neles said as he casually removed the decanter and two glasses from the table,

“So you are here to see if Logan’s starship Arien arrives. What makes you think that he will come here in the first place?” Neles asked,

“We intercepted a transmission sent here sent by the rebellion, that referred to Logan’s old leader,” Drayson explained,

“You mean John Blake don’t you?” Neles enquired,

“That is right,” Drayson explained as the intercom chime went off,

“Excuse me sir,” Neles said as he went to answer the chime,

“What is it, do you not know that I am busy?”

“Sir, agent Fiennes has just returned, he says that he has some news of importance that he wishes to tell you,” came the reply over the intercom,

“Can’t he tell Captain Howells about this?” Neles asked,

“He says that he should tell you sir, he is in my office waiting,”

“Very well, send him in,” Neles sighed as he turned to Drayson,

“I’m sorry about this sir, I’ll deal with this a quickly as I can so we can go back to talking about the Arien,” he apologised as his office door opened and a man dressed in white engineers overalls walked in,

“I’m so glad you could see me sir, I could have reported this through normal channels but I thought that you would like to know immediately,” agent Fiennes said apologetically,

“Know what?” Neles asked as Drayson looked on,

“A ship has just arrived on landing platform twenty two, it was the Arien,” the agent reported,

He now had Drayson’s full attention,

“Are you absolutely sure?” Drayson asked as he rose to his feet,

“I’m certain sir,”

“Platform twenty two, where is it?” Drayson quickly asked,

“The other side of town sir,”

“Good, I will call a team from my fleet, then we go to this landing platform, you will be coming with us,” Drayson said, pointing at the agent,

“Yes sir,”

“Neles, get you forces ready, I want to move out as soon as possible,” Drayson ordered as he headed to the office door,

“Sir, that could cause problems with the local law, they don’t appreciate our forces being here at the best of times but a full military movement could cause trouble, we are no match for Perporta’s army if it comes to war,” Neles pointed out,

“I don’t care about Perporta’s army, I want Logan and now,” Drayson shouted as he headed out of the office. 

Liza Ford sat at the desk inside her own pursuit ship as a transmission came in for her,

“Supreme Commander, we have a redirected call from Perporta for your attention,”

“Put it thought to my office on lock out code twenty four,” Liza ordered as she sat forward so she could speak into her communications system,

“Supreme Commander Ford speaking,”

“Supreme Commander, this is Commander Drayson, I have some good news in regards to Kerr Logan and the Arien. I can report that they are on the planet and that I am about to move in and capture them,”

“Commander Drayson, you have my authority to move in, I look forward to seeing you shortly,” Liza stated with a smile,

“Shortly ma’am?” Drayson asked, sounding surprised,

“Yes, I am currently moving into orbit over Perporta as we speak, once orbit has been achieved, I will be heading directly to our garrison via shuttle craft,” Liza explained,

“I wish for you to arrange someone to meet me planet side,” she ordered,

“I could meet you Supreme Commander,” Drayson offered,

“No, you carry on with your operation, find Logan and bring him and his companions to me,” Liza Ford ordered firmly,

“At once Supreme Commander,” Drayson signed off.

Liza sat back and let out a deep breath,

“I’ve got you now Logan.”

Logan and his crew with his former comrade Karla Ford were walking down the walks of a large open air shopping arcade, Ironside had already left the group to return to the ship with some of the bags containing the groups new belongings,

“This is an impressive place,” Roxy said with a radiant smile, it had been a long time since she had done any shopping, it was stress relieving, the shopping mall was a huge place, it was very busy with people coming and going, to and from the trading establishments and eateries that lined the walkways carrying an assortment of colourful bags that had shinny lettering from where they had just made their purchases, it was a far cry from the shopping areas on Earth, where on Earth the shopping malls were nothing by white buildings with small advertising space and no windows and all enclosed within an almost claustrophobic space, Perporta made an effort to look new, sparkling and tempting, every trading place had large windows where they displayed their wears with bright colours and some mind blowing offers, for Roxy this was a veritable paradise,

“Not bad, I’ve seen better though,” Samantha said as she remembered what it used to be like on Merrica Prime before the Federation invasion, when the city was gleaming with mirrored buildings and glass walkways, she sighed, that time had long since passed, now the memory of her world was tainted with ruins and lost hope,

“I think it’s time we should eat,” Logan suggested as they walked passed a restaurant,

Karla nodded in agreement,

“Why not?” She said as she turned to Danial, who was looking curiously behind him,

“What’s up?” She asked,

“I’m not sure but I get the feeling that we are being followed,” Danial replied worriedly,

“Doubtful,” Karla said as the group walked towards the restaurants main door.

Not too far behind the group stood a short man who wore Perportian standard issue works overalls, he reached into his breast pocket and produced an intercom,

“Commander Drayson, they have entered the Daysow restaurant in the main high street,”

“Good, keep an eye on them, I am on my way,” came the commanding reply from Miles Drayson,

“One other thing, one of the group has gone his own way, I do not know where he went,” agent Fiennes added,

“Which one?” Drayson asked,

“The taller of the men, Ironside I think,” Fiennes answered,

“He isn’t too important, leave him to us, just keep monitoring and giving me reports,” Drayson commanded,

”Yes sir,” Fiennes replied before shutting off his intercom and walked to the opposite side of the street from the restaurant and took up an observational position by a crystal and chrome fountain in the centre of the main square.

Lyle Ironside was stowing the bags that he had bought back with him into the appropriate rooms and was about to return to the flight deck to retrieve one of Roxy’s bags he had dropped when he heard something just outside the ship, at first he thought that it was the others coming back when he heard something that made the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end,

“This is unit one to Space Commander Drayson, we are outside the Arien and are about to proceed into the ship,”

“Good, keep me informed,”

“Yes sir, unit one out,”

Ironside quickly looked around the ship, he suddenly remembered the secret compartment that Roxy had been working on, where he had stored Orac not long ago, he took a couple of quick breaths before making his way to the rear of the ship. 

Four Federation guards entered the Arien, they stepped gingerly towards the flight deck, their para hand guns levelled looking cautiously in all directions just in case someone jumped them, as they reached the flight deck one of the guards stopped by the entrance as the other three stepped inside, scanning the quiet room for anything suspicious, apart from the four guards no one was present,

“The flight deck is clear, we are now proceeding to the rear of the ship, I will report in later,” the section leader said into an intercom as he joined the side of one of the guards who held a small, hand sized life detector,

“Anything to report trooper?”

“No sir, there are no people onboard except us,” the guard replied formerly,

“Very well, we will do the rounds and report in, I want every inch of this ship checked,” the section leader ordered as he headed with the trooper out of the flight deck towards the living section.

Lyle Ironside activated the internal detector systems from within his hiding place, a small screen showed him four life signs onboard, not one reading indicated a crewmate, he continued to watch, feeling more concerned the longer the Federation troopers stayed onboard, he hoped that the shielding on the small compartment that Roxy had built would keep working because he knew that the Federation would use a life sign detector which the compartments shielding was designed to counter, Ironside gave a sigh of relief as the troopers finished their search and departed from the ship, after a short stay within the compartment waiting if the troopers would return Ironside unlocked the compartment and stepped outside, he let out a shaky breath as he secured the entrance to the compartment, which looked like the rest of the wall of the rear bulkhead,

“Well done Roxy,” Ironside said with a smile as he patted the bulkhead.

Lyle Ironside walked carefully to the flight deck and approached the external detector controls, he checked the system to see if the Federation troopers had left, they hadn’t, the four guards were still outside, guarding the Arien in case any of her crew returned, Ironside cursed under his breath, he looked around the flight deck hoping to find something that could aid in his escape, he suddenly thought of Orac,

“I’m sure that thing could help me,” he said under his breath as he left the flight deck and returned to the special compartment, he returned to the flight deck shortly after carrying the computer in both hands, he set the computer on the detector controls so he could keep monitoring the movements outside, he placed the key into position and Orac began to buzz as its lights flashed,

“Orac, how could I leave the Arien without being seen by the guards outside?”

“SIMPLE,” Orac snapped,

“HOWEVER, DUE TO MY ENHANCED CAPABILITIES I FIND MYSELF TOO BUSY TO ASSIST YOU,” Orac added,

“I couldn’t care less Orac, lives are at risk,” Ironside said angrily,

“At times I wonder why Logan insists on keeping you,” he said bitterly,

“LOGAN SEES MY VALUE,” Orac countered,

“Now prove that value, answer my question,” Ironside commanded,

“THE ANSWER TO YOUR QUESTION IS OBVIOUS IRONSIDE, THE

TELEPORT IS YOUR WAY OUT,”

“It still doesn’t work Orac,” Ironside pointed out,

“WELL OF COURSE IT DOESN’T WORK, THE IMAGE FOCAL GEM STILL HAS NOT BEEN INSTALLED,” Orac stated, agreeing with Ironside,

“Image focal gem?” Ironside asked,

“THAT IS CORRECT, WITH THE CREW OF THIS SHIP IS IT ALWAYS NECESSARY TO HAVE EVERYTHING REPEATED FOR YOU?”

“Would the image focal gem be the same as the gem stone that are in medical healing lances?” Ironside asked as an idea came to mind,

“THE GEMS ARE SIMILAR, HOWEVER THE BLUE GEM OF MEDICAL EQUIPMENT HAS A LOWER SIGNAL FREQUENCY THAN THE RED GEM THAT IS REQUIRED FOR TELEPORTATION,”

“Would it work though?”

“POSSIBLY, ALTHOUGH I COULD NOT GUARANTEE IT,” Orac stated,

“Could the teleport be adjusted to except a lower frequency?” Ironside questioned,

“YES, HOWEVER I AM NOT SURE THAT YOU ARE QUALIFIED TO COMPLETE SUCH A TASK,” Orac said tetchily,

“Not on my own Orac, but with your guidance I’m sure that we could do it,”

“WHEN?” Orac asked, sounding almost amused by the prospect,

“Now,” Ironside ordered.

Drayson marched down the high street, followed by a legion of the Federations elite stormtroopers, people on the street gave them a wide berth, all looking shocked by the presence of a Federation military force walking down their street, Drayson was met by agent Fiennes,

“Where are they?” Drayson asked,

“In that restaurant,” Fiennes said as he pointed to the eatery where Logan and his crew had gone into to eat,

“Good, a public place, I do not see that Logan would want to harm civilians,” Drayson said as he turned to the elite stormtroopers section leader,

“I will take five of your men into the restaurant with me, I want you to ensure that there is no way they can escape,” he ordered,

“Yes sir,” the section leader said as he turned to his men and pointed at five of them,

“You five will go with the Space Commander, the rest of you will secure the building,” he ordered,

“What is you standing order sir?” the section leader asked Drayson,

“If they resist, kill them” Drayson commanded as the five troopers gathered around him,

“Let’s go,” Drayson ordered as he marched to the restaurant followed by the five stormtroopers.

Kerr Logan and his crew sat around a table, they were about to start their main course as Drayson and his five troopers stood behind them,

“Kerr Logan, I presume,” Drayson said firmly,

All of Logan’s crew spun around, Drayson’s men levelled their guns on them,

“I do not think that being killed in a restaurant will be the way that you would like to go, so don’t do anything careless and place your weapons on the table, or you will die,” Drayson said commandingly as he forced his gun into Logan’s back,

“I knew we were being watched,” Danial cursed as he watched Roxy and Samantha place their guns on the table,

“Well Danial, at least you can tell me ‘I told you so’ until the day we die,” Logan said with a angry glare, the person he was angry at was himself, he had been told not to come to Perporta by Confusers but he had argued that he needed to see Blake, maybe seeing Blake was not as necessary as he had thought, Logan rose out of his chair and turned to Drayson,

“So, Liza has you running errands for her now?” He said mockingly,

“One more comment like that and I’ll kill you Logan,” Miles Drayson snapped with venom,

“Now, we are going to leave this place quietly, you fail to do so and try and escape you will find that this building is surrounded by elite stormtroopers with orders to shoot to kill,” he commanded,

“We might as well,” Logan said as he turned to his comrades,

“You have to be joking?” Danial asked,

“Look around you Danial, we have lost this one,” Logan said as he watched one of the stormtroopers take away their weapons and then wrestle Danial’s gun from him,

Danial Carson gave Logan and accusing glare but Logan simply turned to Roxy,

“I’m sorry,” he said quietly to her.

Space Commander Drayson lead his prisoners from a Federation prison transporter, he marched before them, his head held high, almost glowing with pride that he, Miles Drayson had done what no other Federation officer had been able to achieve, the capture of the Arien’s crew. Kerr Logan looked around him, the garrison was like many other Federation fortresses that he had served in over his long term as a Federation officer, the building was hexagonal in shape, surrounding a hexagonal courtyard that lead to all areas of the compound, Federation guards formed guard around the high walls as other troopers performed drill practice or physical training, to his right Logan had seen a military transport arrive, he could only guess who its occupant was but soon his guess was proved right. Liza Ford arrived at the garrison just in time to see Drayson lead Kerr Logan and his crew towards the prison compound, all had their hands hung in front of them bound by restraining cuffs, escorted by two black uniformed guards, the Supreme Commander smiled as she walked over to the prisoners,

“It is so good to see you again Logan,” she said tauntingly,

“I wish that I could say the same for you Supreme Commander,” Logan said bitterly, with the other members of his crew looking on,

“Do you know that hearing you call me supreme commander is so rewarding, I told you that I would become the supreme commander before you would,” Liza mocked,

“Maybe, but who cares about you?” Logan asked with a smirk,

Liza turned away from Logan’s mocking smile and looked at Karla and her smile widened,

“Ah, my cousin survived Domserrat, that is so good to see,”

“As Logan said, I wish I could say the same for you, you spoilt brat,” Karla snapped,

“I really wish that we were not related, it embarrasses me,” she added,

“You’re the embarrassment Karla, like your father, I mean, how could he find your mother attractive, she was an Auron, an underling, worse than a slave grade,” Liza bit back as she stood in front of her half Auron cousin,

“And to think that you once liked Auron and its people, you were brought up on the planet, you enjoyed living there,” Karla said firmly,

“What changed you? Was it the fact that my father stayed with my mother after you tried to seduce him, because you were not able to have your own way?” Karla said challengingly,

“That was not the case, your father, my uncle made advances on me, he was found out and expelled from the family, forced to live his life on Auron,” Liza bit defensively,

“That wasn’t what happened and you know it, you are just a spoilt brat who throws a tantrum when things do not go your way,” Karla snapped accusingly before Liza slapped her across the face,

Karla gave Liza an angered glare as the Supreme Commander turned to Miles Drayson,

“Take these people to a holding cell,” she ordered,

“I’ll decide what to do with them later,” she added as she turned back to Karla and smiled,

“I’ll enjoy having my fun with you.” 

As Liza Ford headed to the command centre, Danial Carson walked over to Drayson and took his arm with both hands, his restraining cuffs chaffed his wrists, he winced,

“Listen to me, I was only with these people out of service,” Danial said to everyone’s surprise,

“Meaning?” Drayson asked,

“Contact Cory Williams, she will tell you everything,” Danial said quickly,

“Danial?” Roxy asked, sounding shocked,

Danial and Drayson ignored her,

“Really?” Drayson said, obviously amused by the idea that one of these famous rebels was trying to bargain for his freedom,

“Call her,” Danial demanded,

“I’ll think about it,” Drayson said as he shrugged Danial off of his sleeve and turned to his troopers,

“Take these people to a holding cell.” 

Lyle Ironside was hip deep in electrical wiring and circuit boards, fusing two strands of wire together with a soldering iron, he was working as fast but as quietly as possible, not wanting to attract the attentions of the guards that stood outside the Arien's landing ramp, he wiped the sweat off of his forehead as Orac announced,

“YOU MUST HURRY IRONSIDE, ACCORDING TO FEDERATION

COMPUTERS, KERR LOGAN AND THE OTHERS HAVE BEEN CAPTURED,”

Ironside looked up from his work, he felt tired but he knew that he had to keep working, especially now that his friends were captured,

“Find out where they are to be held Orac,” Ironside ordered,

“And give me a status report on my progress,”

“VERY WELL, YOU ARE CLOSE TO COMPLETING THE NECESSARY

WORK NEEDED FOR TELEPORT, FOLLOW MY INSTRUCTIONS

CORRECTLY AND THE JOB AT CREATING A WORKING DIRECTIONAL TELEPORT WILL BE COMPLETE IN THIRTY THREE MINUTES AND FORTY FOUR SECONDS,” the computer reported,

“Good, this part is complete, what is next?” Ironside said as he pushed the wires into a conduit sleeve and fastened it onto the wall.

Liza Ford and Miles Drayson stood by a computer monitor as Cory Williams explained,

“What Danial told you was true, he joined the rebellion out of service,”

“Why isn’t there anything in Nixon’s reports to state this?” Liza asked as she crossed her arms, not liking the idea that someone knew of something that she was unaware of and should have know about,

“It was a double A security matter, aural only, Nixon wasn’t aware of it, I did not inform him, had I done so it could have ruined everything,” Cory answered,

“From the beginning Cory, how did this whole thing start?” Liza enquired,

Cory straightened in her seat, she fiddled with something off screen before sitting back,

“Danial Carson and I felt that information from our spies in the rebellion was not of the best order, most of the info we got was useless, we had to create another source, Danial suggested that he infiltrate the alliance and send back information that I could act on,”

“How did you manage that, Danial was too well known by the rebellion as a Federation officer?” Drayson asked,

“Even I knew who he was when I was a cadet in the F.S.A,” he added,

“The only way that we could make the rebellion believe that he was working in their best interest was to create the illusion that he was trying to defect, we chose the planet for him to act on and then set everything in motion, it wasn’t long before he was introduced to John Blake, every so often Danial would help Blake, give him information, stuff that wasn’t too important but still good enough to trade with,” Cory said calmly,

“So once Danial had Blake’s trust it would be easy for him to gain entrance into the rebellion, so he could send us the information that we needed,” Liza offered with a smile,

“That is right. It looked as though the whole plan was going to go pear shaped when Nixon arrived on Gauda Prime, however it soon became clear that it was more of a blessing than anything else, with Danial helping Blake steal the Freedom from under Nixon’s nose and leaving the planet with Blake, it became easier for Danial to enter the main control centre of the rebellion, especially once he had left Albion and headed to Helotrix,” Cory replied,

“So, he is an agent of ours?” Drayson asked,

“Was an agent of ours, at the time he latched on to Logan we had stopped receiving information from him, and since then he has been found responsible for President Sleer’s death,” Cory replied,

“With that in mind, I think that it would be clear to say that he is now working for the alliance and not for us,” Liza Ford said as she rose out of her seat and joined Drayson’s side,

“I would go along with that,” Cory agreed,

“Thank you Cory, you have been very helpful,” Liza said with a smile, 

“Any time Supreme Commander,” Cory signed off.

The screen went black as Liza Ford turned to Miles Drayson,

“Go and tell Danial that we will be treating him the same way as the others, let them know that they will be executed tomorrow morning,”

“Tomorrow morning, why not now?” Drayson asked,

“Night is falling, I would like to kill them when the sun is shining, whilst at the same time broadcasting their deaths all over the Federation,” Liza replied with a victorious smile,

Drayson smiled and nodded, approving of his Supreme Commanders wishes, he took a deep breath before heading out of the office.

As Liza took to her seat, the chime of her intercom went off,

“Yes?” Liza said commandingly as she made herself comfortable,

“Councillor Major is on the terrestrial com-channel, she wishes to speak to you Supreme Commander,”

“Very well, put her through,” she commanded,

“Supreme Commander Liza Ford, my name is Petra Major, official councillor of the government of Perporta,”

“How may I be of assistance Councillor?”

“My government colleagues have expressed concerns that we have two Federation battles fleets orbiting our planet and also the incident within one of our shopping parades, we found that having armed Federation troopers marching in a public zone without having permission was against the agreements that we had set up with your president in the peace pact of sixty four,” Councillor Major stated firmly,

“I can understand your concerns Councillor, I would not like the idea of having armed troopers from another outside force running a mock on my territory, but we have not caused you any problems, my fleets have allowed starships to come and go as their captains see fit, I would not like to see something like this cause a interplanetary crisis, I apologise for the concerns we have caused,” Liza said, sounding as sorry as she could, even though she would like to tell this councillor that she would love to invade the planet, and destroy its petty government,

“We are grateful to hear that Supreme Commander, however I would like to know why you are here in the first place?”

“I am here to apprehend a small band of rebels, a task in which was achieved by our armed forces marching through your shopping parade and taking them without a struggle, by my understanding no one was hurt and nothing was damaged during the incident,”

“That is my understanding as well Supreme Commander, however again I must state that your presence is not wanted here, we do allow you to have a small garrison on Perporta but not your battle fleets, we want you to move them out of our territory now,” Councillor Major commanded,

“That sounds like a threat Councillor?” Liza questioned, sitting up in her chair,

“A warning Supreme Commander, which will be backed up if you do not do as asked right now, and you know fully well that we can back up that warning, your two fleets are no match for our forces,”

“Maybe, but I have the whole of the Federation navy to call upon,” Liza countered,

“I do not see that you could call on all of you forces and expect them to arrive here in time to be of any assistance Supreme Commander,” Councillor Major stated with menace in her tone.

Liza was angry at herself for not seeing that point in her argument, there wasn’t much that she could do or say to counter that, she bit her lower lip before replying,

“Very well Councillor, I will have the fleets pull back to the border of your system, however a small number of my ships will remain in orbit over Perporta, for my personal protection,”

“That sounds reasonable Supreme Commander, and as a duty of ours to protect our guests, we shall be sending up a fleet of our own, to join your starships in orbit,” Petra Major said, sounding happy with the arrangement,

“Thank you Councillor, I will inform my fleet commander to be expecting the arrival of your fleet,” Liza replied, sounding up beat but feeling frustrated and bitter that she had not got her own way. 

Logan and his group were placed into a holding cell that was exactly identical to the cell on Gauda Prime where their restraining cuffs were removed, Logan turned to Danial Carson as the blonde man stood by the wall of bars on the south side rubbing his sore wrists,

“What are you waiting for?” Logan asked him,

“That is none of your business,” Danial snapped, not bothering to turn and face Logan,

“What was that about, doing this out of service?” Roxy Davis asked as she marched over to Danial and shoved him in his back,

Danial turned to her and glared at the little woman,

“Stay way from me Roxy, you will get hurt,” he warned the blonde,

“So, what is it Danial, have you betrayed us?” Samantha King asked as she placed her hands on her hips,

“Better not have done,” Karla Ford said as she turned to the man who had helped Blake escape from Gauda Prime onboard the Freedom a little over a year and a half ago,

“If you have betrayed us I will kill you,” Logan said as he grabbed the other man by his collar and glared into his eyes,

“You wish Logan,” Danial said with an amused smile as he pushed Logan away from him,

“I have never been afraid of you and I never will be,” Danial added as he looked Logan right in the eye.

The prisoners turned to the main door as Miles Drayson arrived, flanked by two guards,

“It is good to see that you have made yourselves comfortable,” Drayson said smiling as he approached the bars,

“I am here to inform you that you are due to be executed in the morning,” he said, rubbing his hands together obviously enjoying the prospect of seeing this group of people dying,

“Joy,” Karla said as she turned to Logan,

“Just make sure of one thing, Danial dies first,” Logan said to Drayson as the Space Commander stopped a few feet from the bars,

Miles Drayson’s smile widened,

“Well of course,”

Danial suddenly turned to Drayson, eyes wide in surprise,

“Didn’t you speak to Cory?” He asked,

“Yes, we had an interesting conversation about how you infiltrated the rebellion and provided us with a lot of useful information, however since the information you gave us dried up earlier this year we have assumed that you are now in league with the rebels and therefore you will die with them,” Drayson answered before turning to the main entrance,

“Oh, and one more thing, something that will interest you Samantha King,” Drayson said as he stopped, turned and faced Merrica Primes future Queen,

“Danial Carson lead the covert ops force that infiltrated Merrica Primes security and weakened it so our forces could invade. Just a little bit of information knowing that you came from Merrica Prime, or Gauda two as we like to call it,” Drayson said with a satisfied smile before finally leaving the holding cell, happy knowing that what he had just said would cause more heart ache and aggravation within the small rebel group.

Samantha turned to Danial, her eyes glowed with rage, she could not believe that the man she had fought with had been responsible for Merrica Primes downfall, everyone else turned to Danial, waiting to see what would happen next,

“Is it true Danial, was it you?” She asked, half wanting it to be true so she could finally take out ten years of hate on someone,

Danial looked grimly at her, he cleared his throat and took a deep breath, she wasn’t going to like this, not one bit.

Lyle Ironside looked triumphantly at the machine that he had just overhauled, Orac had announced that the teleport was now operational and the first test was successful, he took a nervous breath as he pushed his hands into his pockets, feeling the teleport pins that Roxy had built a few weeks before in his hands, he looked at the silver disk that was pinned to his sleeve before turning to the computer,

“Where are Logan and the others being held Orac?”

“THEY ARE BEING HELD IN A HOLDING CELL WITHIN THE HEART ON THE FEDERATION GARRISON, I CAN SET THE TELEPORT TO SEND YOU DIRECTLY TO THE HOLDING CELL,”

Orac replied knowingly,

Ironside nervously took hold of a small hand gun, he looked at it, its grip felt hard and cold in his hand, Ironside hated guns, they were built with one aim in mind, to kill, Lyle Ironside did not like killing anyone or anything, through his service as a scientist he never practised any new drug on a living organism, he shuddered, knowing full well that to save his friends he might have to kill, he swallowed to clear his throat as he turned to Orac,

“Do it,” Ironside ordered as he stood worriedly on the teleport platform.

Morning rose over the central continent of Perporta, Liza Ford and Miles Drayson, escorted by six armed guards, entered the holding cell, the prisoners were all sat on the bunks, Danial Carson had his face buried in his hands, nursing a swollen eye and bruised cheek from the pounding he had taken from Samantha earlier, he also had a thumping headache,

“Good to see that you are all well and looking forward to this morning,” Liza said brightly,

“Go to hell,” Logan said as he rose from his bunk and walked over to the bars,

“Only once you’ve gone there first Logan,” Liza said, smiling happily as she approached the bars,

“It is a pity that you have to die Kerronovich Logan, the galaxy won’t be the same without you, I mean, where else am I to find an intellectual equal?” Liza asked mockingly,

“Check the local sewer,” Karla piped up as she climbed off of the top bunk, furthest from the holding cells barred gate,

“I think not Karla, I might find you there,” Liza countered with a smile,

“No, I think you might find yourself in a sewer, like all the other excrement in one of those places,” Karla snapped back,

“I will enjoy seeing you die Karla, I really will,” Liza said smiling broadly as she turned to Logan,

“To think that I once found you an attractive man Logan,” Liza said as she looked Logan up and down, he was a right mess, his clothing was dirty and he looked as if he hadn’t shaved in the last week,

“But still, a jobs a job when all is said and done,” she added with mock pity as she gestured to one of the guards who immediately walked to the barred gates and opened it, whilst the other guards kept an eye on the prisoners,

“Now you will be taken from this place to the place of you deaths, and please be cheerful, we have an audience,” Liza said as she turned to Drayson and gave him and happy smile,

“An audience?” Logan asked,

“Yes Logan, you have the whole galaxy’s attention, your deaths will be broadcast to every planet in the Federation,” Liza replied cheerfully as she strangely felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end,

“I think not,”

Everybody suddenly looked around and saw Lyle Ironside standing with a gun on Liza Ford,

“Ironside,” Roxy gasped,

“I don’t believe it,” Samantha said with a smile,

“Well believe it and get out of there, I’ve got some teleport pins in my pocket,” Ironside said as he stepped closer to Liza Ford,

“Now I urge all Federation officers in this room to drop their weapons or I drop your Supreme Commander,” Ironside commanded, trying to sound as convincing as he could as his comrades pushed passed the guards who were dropping their guns, and joined the side of their saviour,

“I do not think that you would harm me Ironside, going by your record you left the Federation because your work was being used to kill people,” Liza said as she stepped closer to the former scientist,

“You appreciate life,” she added,

“And you do not, because of that killing you will not be too difficult, it could also save lives so don’t try me Supreme Commander,” Ironside warned as he reached into his left side pocket and produced a handful of teleport pins which his comrades quickly took and pinned to their clothing,

“Let’s get out of here,” Samantha said to everyone’s agreement,

“Let’s kill her first,” Karla said, pointing at her cousin,

“No, we get out of here. If more Federation officers hear gunfire they might rush in and we could all end up dead, that is one thing I wish to avoid at the moment,” Danial said as he grabbed the nearest Federation para hand gun,

“I would hate to admit it but Danial’s right,” Roxy said reluctantly,

“Agreed,” Logan said as he stepped in front of Liza and grabbed her hard by her jaw and looked her right in the eye,

“You are lucky this time Liza, next time you _will_ die,”

“You haven’t got the nerve Logan, you’ve gone soft,” Liza sniped,

“You wish,” Logan retorted before turning to Ironside,

“Ironside, get us out of here,” he ordered angrily as he pushed Liza against the bars of the holding cell, which she hit with a thud and dropped to the floor, glaring at Logan with evil eyes,

“Orac, get us out of here,” Ironside ordered,

With that command the solid forms of the six rebels faded away with a hiss of pink noise, leaving a furious Liza Ford and Miles Drayson,

“Don’t let them leave the planet,” Liza ordered as she faced Drayson, who stood looking down at her,

“Don’t just stand there, get them,” Liza commanded angrily, hating the feeling of being beaten.

The escape from Perporta had been easy, especially as Liza had sent a large part of her battle fleets to the border of the Perporta system in the opposite direction from where the Arien was travelling. The ships crew sat silently at the Arien’s controls as Logan set the auto pilot and rose from his seat,

“I don’t want to go through that again,” Roxy said sombrely as she stood up and walked to a bag that she recognised as hers which contained some of her new belongings,

“It is bound to happen again,” Danial said dryly,

“Who’s talking to you?” Samantha snapped as she gave Danial an evil stare,

Danial remained silent, he knew at the moment he wasn’t the most favoured member of the ships crew. Karla stood up and walked towards Orac,

“Blake said that you had kept this,” she said, turning to Roxy,

“It is too good to throw away,” Roxy said as she joined her friend, holding the bag in both arms,

“I guess that I’m stuck with you now,” Karla said before turning to Logan,

“If you want to leave, you can,” Logan said coldly as he stood in front of the Slave computer,

“Slave, set course two seven three point zero five, speed time distort nine,” he ordered,

“YES MASTER, COURSE AND SPEED LAID IN, I HOPE THAT IS TO YOUR HIGH STANDARDS MASTER?”

“Fine,” Logan replied as he turned to his crew,

“I think we all need a rest,” Roxy said to him as she gestured around the flight deck to her crewmates,

“I agree,” Ironside said with a nod of the head,

“Your rescuing us was appreciated Ironside, but we will not rest yet, we have things to do,” Logan said as he stepped closer to his crew,

“Like what?” Roxy asked,

“We must bring down the Federation, if today has told us anything it has told us that time is running out for us, we must act quickly,” Logan said firmly as the others gathered around him,

“I disagree,” Danial protested,

“I agree with Danial,” Ironside said, his words sounded as surprised as he felt,

“We all need rest, even you Logan,” he added,

“Not until the Federation have fallen,” Logan snapped, making fists and glaring at each and every member of his crew,

“We will rest first,” Roxy stated bluntly, she was worried for her comrades, Kerr especially,

“No,” Logan shouted,

“Yes Kerr, I mean, we have just gone though a very life threatening moment for what?” Roxy snapped as she threw her bag at Logan, who parried it with his left forearm,

“For shopping, nothing but fakking shopping,” she added angrily.

Legacy Of Roj Blake

Chapter Eleven

No More Secrets

The relationships between the crewmembers of the starship Arien are becoming strained, Kerr Logan’s growing obsession with destroying the Federation is causing great concern.

Meanwhile, Supreme Commander Liza Ford has been called for a meeting between the high command of the Federation and the high council to discuss the gradual decline of the Terran Federation.

With the need of relaxation and to assist the rebel alliance, the crew of the Arien head to a small unclassified planet at the request of Avalon, to check out the possibility of the planet becoming another outpost for the rebellion… 

The forward vision screen displayed a small green and grey planet that was slightly shrouded in white clouds, Danial Carson sat back at the detector control board, he crossed his arms as he turned to Karla Ford,

“Doesn’t look like much,”

“Nor do you but you do have some uses,” Karla snapped as she turned to Samantha King, who smiled at her,

“I have no idea what though,” Samantha quipped,

“Very amusing,” Danial said bluntly,

“Why, thank you Danial,” Samantha replied,

Danial turned back to the screen, he looked over the data that the screen offered him as Ironside entered the flight deck,

“Have you got your things together?” Danial Carson asked the other man,

“I’m all ready, how much longer do I have to wait?” Ironside asked, who was grateful to have been given a job that required his entire scientific prowess,

“Not long,” Danial said as he gestured towards the screen,

“That is the planet,” he announced,

Ironside turned and looked at the screen, he took a deep breath,

“Not a pleasant looking planet,” he said as he stepped nearer to the screen,

“Slave, how long before we are in teleport range?” Ironside asked,

“THE ARIEN WILL BE IN TELEPORT RANGE IN TEN MINUTES SIR, I REALLY HOPE THAT THE NEW TELEPORT WORKS FOR YOU SIR, ESPECIALLY WITH ALL THE HARD WORK YOU PUT INTO IT,” Slave responded,

“Don’t you think it is about time we re-programmed that thing?” Samantha King said with a smirk as she gestured to the computer,

“A bit irritating isn’t it?” Karla agreed,

“It blends in perfectly with the rest of the crew of this ship,” Danial pointed out coldly as he smiled,

“Meaning?” Samantha asked,

“You know what I mean,” Danial answered dryly,

“I’d be careful in what you say Danial,” Samantha warned,

“Why should I, or are you threatening me?” Danial said as he stood up and walked away from his control board before turning to the Princess,

“If you are threatening me, you better be able to back it up Samantha, if you cannot don’t bother me with trivia,” he added,

“I can back it up, I’ve killed better people than you,” Samantha countered as the others looked on,

“I was the man responsible for you planets defeat, do you really think that you can worry me. It is you who should be careful Samantha, even in the so-called safety of your quarters I can end your miserable life. You are only alive because I have a use for you, if that wasn’t the case you would be dead already, remember that your highness, you may be a princess to your people but to me you are nothing, so be more careful in future or I will finish the job that the Federation began when they invaded your little world,” Danial said between clenched teeth, his eyes flashed with cold rage.

Samantha swallowed deeply as Danial walked passed a stunned Lyle Ironside and headed to the exit,

“Whose side are you on Danial?” Karla called out,

“Mine,” Danial replied sharply as he came to a stop,

“Like you, I am on the run from the Federation, and also like you, I know that destroying the Federation is the only safe option, I may disagree with Logan’s methods but I know that it is the only way forward, but if anyone gets in my way, if anyone threatens my personal safety, regardless to who it is I will kill them,” Danial added harshly before leaving the flight deck, 

Karla and Samantha turned to each other, both looked shocked but not as much as Ironside, who was standing by the exit, silently with wide eyes,

“I’ll be glad to be off the ship,” Ironside said under his breath.

Kerr Logan was stomping down the main passage way, his new blue jacket of his two piece outfit, flailed behind him as he pulled it over his shoulders, he had a look of an angry man, behind him, trying to keep up with Logan’s pace, dressed in a pair of tight fitting black trousers and a loose fitting crimson tunic was Roxy Davis,

“Kerr, he offered again and you still refused,” Roxy called after Logan,

“You know my feelings on joining the alliance Roxy, No,” Logan snapped as he stopped and turned to face the blonde woman,

“I must fight this on my own, you know that,” he added fiercely,

“But I don’t know why, I mean what has pushed you into fighting the Federation? When I first met you, you were not even interested in fighting for the cause but now look at you, you’re obsessed,” Roxy shouted as she gestured to Logan,

“I was not pushed into anything Roxy, I am doing this on my own,” Logan countered,

“You don’t have to be alone in this,” Roxy responded,

“Yes I do, it is the only way that I can win, and I _will _win,” Logan stated firmly,

“But I guess that it is the only thing that I can win,” he went on as he continued walking down the passage way,

“What is that supposed to mean?” Roxy asked, sounding bitter,

“You know what I mean,” Logan snapped as he stopped and glared at Roxy,

“We have been together for eight months now Roxy, and still you shy away from spending a night with me. How do you think that makes me feel?” Logan asked, pointing at himself,

“You know my problems with that, it isn’t as if I haven’t tried,” Roxy responded in her defence,

“Ryan is dead, pure and simple, you killed him,” Logan snapped,

“It’s not that easy,” Roxy replied,

“Do you think that I am doing this deliberately?” She asked,

“I don’t know Roxy, are you, how am I supposed to know?” Logan asked, looking Roxy right in the eye,

“What are you saying?” Roxy asked worriedly,

“I don’t know,” Logan said as he headed to the recreation room,

“Maybe you just don’t find me attractive enough,” he added,

“That is not it at all, you are very handsome and you can be very sweet,” Roxy retorted,

“When you’re not being a fakk,” she added under her breath,

“Well, that isn’t enough is it?” Logan said over his shoulder,

“I told you from the beginning that I needed time,” Roxy stated firmly,

“Time,” Logan snapped as he turned to Roxy, looking very angry,

“I’ve given you that and what have I had in return, empty promises. Maybe we should cool it for a while, to find out how we truly feel, we have been together inside a small starship for six and a half months, constantly being in each others hair, that in itself cannot be too healthy for any relationship,” he sounded upset by his words, it hurt him to stay them,

Roxy felt as if she had been hit hard in the stomach, she was breathing heavily, tears began to fill her eyes,

“Please don’t Kerr,” Roxy pleaded with him,

“Don’t end it now,” she cried,

“It is the only way Roxy,” he said sombrely before marching into the recreation room.

Roxy Davis stood still as the pain tore into her, tears streamed down her cheeks, her lips quivered, she had been dropped by many men in her life, it always hurt her but she had never lost such a man like Logan before, not a man who had spent so much time with her without once belittling her or making her do things that she didn’t want to do, Logan always had encouragement for her, she had sometimes found the praise addictive, maybe she had come to take it for granted. Logan had put himself under a great deal of pressure and she didn’t know why, it was bringing out a side of him she didn’t like, lately is was like he was going back to the man she first met on Gauda Prime, Roxy turned and quickly walked to her quarters, she entered her room, rushed to her bed as the door closed behind her, buried her face into her pillow and burst into tears. 

Liza Ford stood on the flight deck of her pursuit ship, she had just been leaving Earth when she received the call from Nixon to attend the meeting onboard Space Command Headquarters, she wore her white one piece jump-suit, it was every bit a Federation uniform except for being far more comfortable. Liza had just been on a visit to her parents, something that she had not been able to do enough of in recent months, for her family was just as important as military service, she had enjoyed her stay, she felt more focused now, more prepared for what might lay ahead,

“Status report,” she ordered.

The pursuit ships captain turned from his duties and straightened to give Liza his report,

“All systems are green, course is true, detector sweeps indicates that no objects are within detector range Supreme Commander,” he said formally, 

“Very well,” Liza said as she sat in the captains chair, she looked at the forward monitor, just ahead of them was a small green and grey planet that had been designated as XK—98, Liza sighed, she wondered what was going to be the main topic of discussion at the meeting, maybe Nixon would be announced as a full president, which would be good for Liza because her commission as Supreme Commander would be safe. Something caught her eye on the monitor, something sparkled that was in orbit around XK—98, Liza sat forward and pointed to the screen,

“What is that?” She asked,

The Captain turned to his detector controller who directed the scanning beams onto the target, he smiled as information came back to him,

“Supreme Commander, it is registering as an interstellar luxury cruiser, mark two by the look of it, however I might be wrong, it looks as if the ship has been heavily modified,” the Captain reported,

“Mark two interstellar luxury cruiser?” Liza said as she rose out of the captain’s chair and joined her captain at the detector controls, she scanned over the readings,

“Check the configuration with our records,” she ordered,

“Yes ma’am,” the detector controller obeyed, his hands danced over the control board, soon the ships computers matched the ship with something in its files,

“Supreme Commander, the ship reads as being the Arien,” he reported with a smile, knowing how much his Supreme Commander wanted that ship,

“The Arien. Logan what are you doing here?” Liza asked as she glanced at the forward screen, she smiled as she turned to her captain,

“Prepare for battle stations, contact pursuit ships two and three, tell them to prepare for engagement, I want to show Logan what these new G.X.Y class pursuit ships are capable of,” Liza commanded as she sat down again,

“Communications officer, inform Space Command that we are engaging the Arien, let them know that I will be slightly later than planned,” she ordered before turning to her captain,

“Engage,” she ordered with a warm feeling rising from her stomach, she had the advantage of surprise and out numbered the Arien three to one, surely the Arien would not be a match for the new G.X.Y’s.

Lyle Ironside finalised his preparations, all of his planetary surveying equipment was ready to use, he had made sure that all the instruments were in working order before turning to Danial who was stood by the teleport controls,

“I’m ready,” he announced,

“Are you sure that you do not need any company while you are down there?” Roxy asked as she passed Ironside a small tool kit,

“No thank you, with the way people on this ship have been at each others throats over recent days, I’ll be glad to be away from here,” Ironside said as he took the tool kit and placed it with the rest of his equipment, he turned to Danial as he stood on the teleport platform, 

“Put me down,”

Danial tilted his head, smiled before activating the teleport controls, with a hiss of static Ironside and his equipment disappeared.

“The one thing that surprises me about him is that he finds that kind of work exciting,” Danial said to Roxy with a sarcastic smile,

“I can understand what he meant by wanting off this ship,” Roxy said as she gave Danial a hard stare,

“You might as well let Logan know that Ironside has left the ship,” Danial suggested,

“I’ll wait until Ironside calls in,” Roxy said as she crossed her arms and waited, it wasn’t long before Ironside’s voice filled the room,

“This is Ironside, I am down and safe, I’ll report in within the next hour, Ironside out,”

“There,” Danial said with a smile,

“Now you can go and tell Logan,” he added firmly,

Roxy took a deep breath, she hadn’t seen Logan since their argument this morning, she wasn’t sure how she would feel seeing him again, if it would reduce her to tears with Logan ending their relationship which still hurt like hell.

Kerr Logan was walking away from the flight controls towards Karla, who was sat at the detector control board as Roxy walked into the flight deck, her heart felt heavy when she saw him, she swallowed to clear her throat and gave him her report,

“Ironside is on the planet, he said that he would call in within the hour,”

“Good,” Logan said flatly as he gave Roxy a blank look, hiding his feelings from the woman and his own pain at their separation. He was even now regretting what he had said earlier but his own stubbornness would not let him concede that.

Karla felt the tension between her crew mates, the uncomfortable pain that stabbed at the pair of them, she was just about to turn to Roxy when something caught her eye on her instruments, at the same time Slave came on line,

“I WOULD HATE TO CAUSE ANY CONCERN BUT HULL SENSORS INDICATE SCANNING BEAMS,”

Logan suddenly turned from Roxy and glared at the computer,

“Where from?” He asked firmly,

“SIX MILLION SPACIALS MASTER, GRID REFERENCE THREE SIX NINE TWO POINT EIGHT,” Slave replied,

“Identify them Slave,” Karla ordered,

“THEY READ AS THREE FEDERATION PURSUIT SHIPS, ACTUAL CLASS AND DESIGN IS UNKNOWN, I’M SORRY THAT I CANNOT PROVIDE ANY MORE INFORMATION THAN THAT MADAM,”

“Battle stations,” Logan commanded as he rushed to his flight seat and hammered at the intercom,

“Samantha, Danial, to the flight deck now, Federation ships closing in on us,” he shouted before cutting off the intercom as Roxy sat at the ships systems control board,

“Activate the forcewall,” Logan ordered,

“What about Ironside?” Karla asked as Danial rushed in,

“If we activate the forcewall how will we teleport him back up?” Roxy asked,

“If we deactivated the forcewall to bring Ironside back up there may not be a ship for him the teleport to, we will leave him down there and pick him up at another time, at this moment we are sitting ducks, we have to leave orbit and get out of here,” Logan countered forcefully as he glared at Roxy,

“Danial, activate the weapons controls and stand by for firing,” Logan commanded as he turned his attention to his flight controls,

“FEDERATION SHIPS ARE ON AN INTERCEPT COURSE MASTER, I ADVISE THAT WE EVACUATE THE PLANET NOW,” Slave said in a panicking tone,

“I’m aware of that Slave,” Logan snapped as he brought the Arien to bare on the three Federation ships,

“They look like the new G.X.Y pursuit ships,” Danial said as he studied the targeting monitors on the weapons control board,

“If they are we are in trouble,” Logan said, knowing about the reputation of the new Federation warships,

“Why?” Karla asked as Samantha rushed in and sat at the communications board,

“Those pursuit ships have a top speed of time distort thirteen and a greater power ratio, we would never out run those things in this crate,” Danial stated before suddenly realising what Logan was about to do,

“Do you think that is a good idea Logan,” Danial asked,

“Yes, as you said we cannot out run these pursuit ships, so the only way to evade them is by going straight for them at maximum speed,” Logan stated as he concentrated on his controls and in the job at hand,

“That will be suicide Logan,” Samantha called out,

“It is our only way, by my reading those pursuit ships are travelling at time distort five, at maximum speed we will pass them and leave them standing and by the time they have slowed down and adjusted their course, we will be out of detector range, then we will look for a suitable planet to deal with any repairs that might need doing,” Logan explained quickly,

“What about Ironside?” Karla asked,

“He will have to wait, you never know by the time we get back he may have his report ready for us,” Logan answered as he took a deep breath,

“Shouldn’t we send Ironside a message?” Roxy asked,

“Not a good idea, if we send a signal to the planet they might intercept it and go down to the planet and then Ironside will be in trouble,” Danial replied

“Stand by,” Logan called out.

The detector controller’s eyes widened when he saw the way that the Arien had turned, he quickly turned to his Supreme Commander,

“Ma’am, the Arien is leaving its orbit,”

“Plot its course,” Liza ordered,

“I have done that already Supreme Commander, their new course heading is zero zero zero, they are heading directly for us,” he said in a slightly worried tone,

Liza's eyes turned to the main screen, she smiled,

“So, he wishes to challenge us, let us show him how good our new ships are. Activate forcewalls, order pursuits two and three to form up and fire at will, destroy the Arien.”

The tension was almost tangible on the flight deck of the Arien, the tension rose as the Slave computer announced,

“I WOULD HATE TO WORRY YOU FURTHER MASTER BUT THE FEDERATION SHIPS ARE NOW FIRING AT US WITH PLASMA BOLTS,”

“How many bolts fired?” Logan asked as he shot a glance at Karla,

“Six, all running true,” she replied,

“Stand by for impact,” Logan shouted as he braced himself in his flight seat,

“Slave, give us a count down to impact,” he ordered,

“UH, VERY WELL MASTER, FOURTEEN SECONDS AND COUNTING,” Slave responded before beginning its count down, everyone on the flight deck held their breaths as they held onto their flight seats or control boards.

Liza Ford smiled as the six plasma bolts headed towards their target,

“I’ve got you now Logan,” she said victoriously,

“This is Liza Ford to all ships, continue to fire,” she commanded, hoping that it would be enough to destroy the Arien and its crew.

“MORE PLASMA BOLTS FIRED,” Slave announced just before the first of the six plasma bolts hit the Arien’s forcewall,

“How long before we pass the pursuit ships?” Roxy asked as the second bolt hit, rocking the ship to and fro,

“Less than a minute,” Logan replied as the Arien took two more hits on its forcewall,

“Status,” Logan called out,

Roxy's eyes turned to her instruments, things looked bleak,

“We’ve lost power cells seven and six, we are already drawing on number five,” she reported as the last two of the first six plasma bolts struck,

“Activate emergency systems and put all power into the weapons, forcewall and drive systems,” Logan commanded,

Roxy obeyed, she hammered at her controls as another volley of plasma bolts hammered the ship, this whole situation reminded her of the time that they had to abandon the Domserrat base, she remembered the fact that they had also lost on that day, she hoped things would be different now.

“Stand by to fire Danial, on my mark,” Logan commanded.

Danial prepared himself, he set the targeting computers and locked onto the middle pursuit ship of the three.

“They are still coming, nine plasma bolts have hit their targets but they are still moving towards us,” the detector controller stated worriedly,

“Calm down ensign, this will be over very shortly,” Liza said with confidence as she watched with glee as another salvo of plasma was fired at the rebel ship.

“FOUR MORE PLASMA BOLTS FIRED MASTER, I MUST SAY THAT I AM GROWING VERY CONCERNED,” Slave reported sombrely as Logan turned to Danial,

“Fire.”

With the four starships converging, a lance of green neutron energy reached out from under the forward dish of the Arien, it streaked through the darkness of space and hit Liza Ford’s pursuit ship.

Parts of the pursuit ships interior exploded as the neutron beam passed through the forcewall and struck the hull, Liza spun around as an explosion tore through the rear bulkhead of the flight deck, killing two flight officers and injuring a third, she couldn’t understand why the forcewall did not hold,

“Status report, what happened to our forcewall?” She called out,

“Forcewall is down, power generator is offline, we are on emergency power only,” an engineering commander shouted over another explosion on the flight deck,

“Damn,” Liza cursed as her screen shut down.

“Fire again,” Logan commanded, realising that the middle pursuit ship was in trouble.

Danial hit the firing control, the next shot struck the pursuit ship on Liza’s left flank, impacting on its drive chamber, causing the ship to tear itself apart, the crew of the Arien had to shield their eyes as the pursuit ship exploded sending large fragments of burning metal in all directions, striking Liza’s damaged pursuit ship, causing it to list, the third as yet undamaged pursuit ship opened fire with greater intensity, two bolts of plasma rained upon the Arien as Danial hit the firing control, the impact of the two energy bolts knocked the targeting computers so instead of the neutron beam striking the ship in its drive housing, it hit and destroyed its starboard wing sending the ship into an uncontrollable flat spin. The Arien shot passed the wreckage of pursuit ships and made its escape as Liza Ford’s crippled ship fell into the gravity well of the planet X.K—98.

Lyle Ironside was setting up camp when he heard a loud whining sound above him, he looked up into the bright blue sky to see a huge fire ball hurtling towards the planets surface, Ironside's mouth dropped, the first thing he thought of was the possibility that it was the Arien, he tried to see if he could identify the ship through the flames but he couldn’t, Ironside watched numbly as the ship struck the surface with a loud roar that shattered the other words tranquil setting of the green and brown landscape. Ironside’s heart was racing, he quickly gathered up a small medical kit and turned to where the ship had crashed, it seemed as if it had landed about five miles away, he hoped that it wasn’t the Arien, if it was he would be stuck on this rock. He looked at his medical kit, he knew that there was a likelihood of no one surviving the crash but he had to find out, his overriding medical instinct told him to, he took a deep breath before making his way as quickly as he could to the fallen ship.

The status report wasn’t a good one, the Arien was in a bad way but they had survived, the old ship had stood up to Federation pursuit ships and lived to tell the tale, Logan smirked as he patted his flight controls, he was growing rather fond of this ship even though it wasn’t a warship he felt that it was far better than the Freedom. He turned to Samantha who was searching through the star charts in hope of finding a suitable planet that they could travel to for much needed repairs,

“Any luck?” Logan asked,

“I think I’ve found something,” Samantha announced as the rest of the crew turned to her,

“Where?” Danial asked,

“A planet called Zolaf Four,” Samantha replied as she turned to Logan,

Logan felt an uncomfortable shiver at the name of the planet,

“That’s a rebel held planet Logan,” Karla said as she climbed out of her flight seat,

“So it’s safe then,” Roxy said with a smile,

“Hopefully, because that is where we are going,” Logan said as he turned to the Slave computer,

“Slave, maximum available speed to Zolaf Four,”

“YES MASTER,”

“No discussion then?” Danial asked,

“None what so ever,” Logan replied as he turned to his crew,

“While we are on route, we will do as much as we can to repair this ship, so get to work,” Logan commanded forcefully.

Logan’s crew looked at each other, they were all rattled by the recent battle and had hoped for some rest time to unwind but Logan was adamant that the ship would be repaired first, it was the most important tool they had.

Ironside reached the remains of the starship, at once he knew that it wasn’t the Arien, by the look of it, it was a Federation pursuit ship, he let out a sigh of relief, it was good to know that the Arien was still possibly intact. Lyle Ironside looked over the ship, there wasn’t much left of it, small fires burned in the tall grass, many trees had been levelled and a large trench of dug up dirt and soil extended from the rear of the ship. Ironside noticed a large tear in the ships hull that was big enough to walk through, he pushed aside his own fears as he stepped closer to the wreck, he had no idea if the ship would explode and he knew that it was unlikely for anyone to survive this crash but his medical training wouldn’t let him leave the ship without checking to make sure that its crew were dead. The tear in the hull lead directly into a sleeping quarters, the walls had collapsed, the ceiling had crashed to the floor, two bodies lay beneath it, their eyes were wide, blood dripped from their mouths and ears, it was obvious that they were dead, Ironside let out a shaky breath as the ship groaned, he stepped through a hole in a buckled wall into a narrow passage, running his hands along the walls for support, Ironside ascended the tilting passage and soon entered the flight deck, bodies littered the floor, all very much dead, one poor man had lost the entire lower half of his body, Ironside shivered, he shook his head, he could see no one who could be alive, he turned and was about to leave when he noticed one person who was trapped between a heavy metal seat and a ceiling support strut, she looked as if she was breathing, Ironside moved quickly to her side but stopped when he recognised her, she was Liza Ford,

“You,” he gasped as he stepped back, he was thinking of leaving her where she was, to let her die, if he was Logan or Danial she might just die but he wasn’t like them, he didn’t hold anything personal against her and he knew that his conscience would not let him leave someone who he could help. Ironside checked her over, she had a pulse but it was weak, he knew that he had to move her onto a flat surface, with the ship groaning like it was Ironside wasn’t sure how long the structural integrity of the remains of the ship would hold, taking a deep breath Ironside forced the ceiling strut away from Liza’s weakened body, almost pulling a muscle in the process and lifted Liza over his shoulder and headed towards the tear in the ships hull and to safety,

“After all this, you better not die on me,” Ironside groaned as he found his way to the tear and climbed outside, just in time to see the ship collapse in on itself, Ironside staggered and fell as the roar of falling metals sounded behind him, he dropped Liza Ford beside him and turned to the ship, before looking down at Liza,

“I hope you are worth all this aggravation,” he snapped as he sat on the ground and held unto his aching shoulder muscle,

“Trust something like this to happen to me,” he grumbled.

The Arien’s landing ramp lowered onto the landing platform twenty six on Zolaf Four, Kerr Logan stepped out from the ship first, he felt a chill as he scanned his surrounding, he recognised the area from Confusers vision, he felt his hands become sweaty as he remembered seeing the place on fire, Karla Ford was the next to disembark, she kept her hand resting on the grip of her gun that she wore on her hip, she could sense the anxieties that Logan was feeling,

“You okay?” She asked, breaking Logan from his thoughts,

“Fine, I’m fine,” he replied.

They were met by a man who had fair hair and bright green eyes, he wore the green fatigues of a rebel soldier,

“You must be Kerr Logan, I’ve heard a lot about you,” he said with a pleasant smile as he offered Logan his hand which Logan excepted,

“I am, and you are?”

“Davis, Keiran Davis,”

“So what can I do to help the famous Kerr Logan?” Davis asked with a smile,

Logan gave him a hard stare, he didn’t appreciate people calling him famous, some people were even going as far as calling him a legend like Roj Blake, Davis smile faded, he felt a little uncomfortable.

“We need repairs to our ship,” Logan said flatly,

“It looks as if it has gone through the odd battle,” Davis said as he stepped nearer to the Arien, he noticed Karla, her eyes were following him wherever he went, he also noticed that like Logan she wore a gun on her hip,

“We went through a battle just recently,” Karla said firmly,

“Did you win?” Davis asked,

“We did,” Karla replied,

“No Karla, we did not win. The only time that we can say that we have won is when the Federation has fallen and not before,” Logan said harshly as he turned to Davis who gave him a worried look that Logan seemed to recognise,

“I want the ship repaired as quickly as possible, I want you to arrange it,” Logan commanded as he pointed at Davis,

“I’ll make sure that it gets done, luckily I know the person who runs the repair work shops,” Davis said with a smile as he headed to the exit,

“You will have to come with me to register your ship, then you can leave it to me to repair it,” Davis called out over his shoulder,

“I wouldn’t leave him with the ship by himself,” Karla said to Logan,

“Good, then you can stay with the ship as they repair it,” Logan said as he turned to follow Davis,

“No discussion?” Karla called after Logan,

“None what so ever,” Logan shouted back as he left Karla with the Arien,

“I thought so,” Karla said in a sigh,

“You’re becoming worse than what Blake ever was,” she added as she was joined by Roxy Davis, Samantha King and Danial Carson. 

Lyle Ironside had tended to Liza Ford’s injuries, she was still unconscious, lying on the ground in Ironside’s survey camp covered by a brown blanket. Ironside worked on his survey, knowing that he had more time to do this job than first intended, he made a number of soil samples and examined them in a small test rig, Ironside would have to wait for the results so he began to do a depth scan of the planets crust, using an ultrasonic high resonance carrier beam, it would tell him what the crust was made up of, how deep it was and if there were any indications of life, he would have to do a number of tests in different areas to gain a clear picture of the planets ecology, as he wiped the sweat from his forehead he noticed a small scaly creature looking at him, Ironside smiled, it was his first encounter with life on this planet, the creature was small with four legs and a short tail, its eyes were black, that blended in with the dark green of its scaled body, it sniffed the air, moving closer on occasions, Ironside watched it with interest, it seemed harmless enough but he knew that looks meant nothing with some animals, Ironside tilted his head to one side, the small animal, that was about the size of Ironside's hand did the same,

“Hi there,” Ironside said as he set his tool down and took a step closer, with that the little creature scurried away,

“I’m sorry little thing, I guess that I scared you,” Ironside said softly before hearing a groan from behind him, he spun around to see that Liza Ford stirring,

“You probably scared that thing away,” Ironside said quietly as he walked to his patient,

“It probably sensed the evil in you,” he added with a smile as he knelt by her side and checked her pulse, it was far stronger than before,

“Oh, my head,” Liza groaned,

“You’re lucky it is only your head,” Ironside said with a smile as Liza came to, she looked at him curiously, she soon remembered him as being a man who had held a gun on her only a few weeks ago,

“Ironside,” she said as she placed a hand onto her forehead as if to nurse the throbbing pain in her head,

“That is right Liza, you should be grateful, I have just saved your life,” Ironside said firmly,

“I told you that you would sooner save lives, like I knew that you couldn’t kill me back on Perporta,” Liza said as she slowly began to sit up,

“I guess that we will never know that will we? Ironside said as he helped Liza, who winced and gasped in pain as Ironside helped her rest against one of his equipment packs.

“Don’t flatter yourself Lyle Ironside, I know you better than you know yourself, since our brief encounter on Perporta I made sure that I got to know you,” Liza Ford said as she rested her hands on her thighs, she looked over herself, her new white uniform was torn and bloody, she let out a painful sigh,

“I guess I’m going to need a new one of these,”

“If we ever get off of this planet,” Ironside said gravely,

“How long have we been here for?” Liza asked,

“A couple of days, I spent most of my time making sure that you were going to live,” Ironside replied, sounding surprised with himself as he opened one supply bag and produced two foil covered ration sticks, one of which he passed to Liza Ford,

“Thank you Ironside, I owe you one,” Liza said as she took the ration stick and began to unwrap it,

“Just you remember that Liza,” Ironside stated firmly as he opened the foil of his food stick and took a bite out of it. 

Roxy looked curiously towards the entrance as Logan returned to the Arien with Keiran Davis, it wasn’t Logan that raised her interest but the man who was walking with him, he was the right height and build and he also had the right colour eyes and hair,

“I don’t believe it,” she said as she stepped forward,

“Believe what?” Karla asked as she watched the blonde woman walk towards the two men.

Suddenly Keiran stopped as he saw the woman walking towards him, she looked very familiar although the hair colour was different,

“Keiran,” Roxy called out,

“I don’t believe it, Ro,” Keiran gasped as he greeted Roxy with a warm hug,

“How are you doing?” Roxy asked, her eyes glowing happily,

“I’m fine,” Keiran said as he stepped away from the embrace and looked her up and down,

“You look well, but what is with this?” Keiran asked as he gently tugged at Roxy’s hair,

“You are not a blonde Ro, you’re a brunette,” he added,

“I needed a change,” Roxy said with a beaming smile,

“I suppose it is better than the time you went green,” Keiran said with a snigger,

“Even I’ll agree with that,” Roxy said before taking a deep breath,

“I never thought that I would see you again, not since you and mother left Earth,” she added,

“Mother will be over the moon to see you, she has been talking about nothing but you for the last few months, she has missed you,” Keiran said warmly,

“Is mother here?” Roxy asked, sounding surprised,

“Yeah, she’ll be here soon, you see she runs the engineering pools here,” Keiran said with pride,

“Is Kerril here as well?” Roxy questioned,

“Yeah, she’ll here soon as well, she works with mother,” Keiran said smiling warmly at his younger sister,

“Brilliant,” Roxy said as she turned to her comrades who were all watching the siblings with curiosity, no quite able to hear them with the sound of the Arien as its drives began its slow and noisy close down procedure,

“Oh, I’m sorry, everyone, this is my brother Keiran. Keiran, this is the bunch of people that I’ve been hanging around with for the last few months or so,”

“Good to meet you,” Keiran said as he slipped an arm around his sisters waist, a gesture that even though he was Roxy’s brother made Logan as jealous as hell. 

Ironside stood over a ridge, holding a pair of electronic binoculars to his eyes as he studied the movements of a herd of insect like animals that grazed on the long grass less than a mile away, there must have been thirty of them, all huddled together as another fifteen stood on watch around them, everything looked serene, the young moved in and out of the herd between the legs of the far taller adults, who must be approximately six or seven foot in height, very occasionally one adult from the herd would walk out to the soldiers that guarded them to offer some of the grass which was always excepted. Ironside smiled, what he was watching took his breath away, it was only the second time that he had seen life on this planet, it had taken three days but it was well worth the wait, the insect like animals had a gold body that was formed out of three globes and long, thin black legs, the young were a contrast to the adults in being silver in colour, the only difference between the herd and the surrounding soldiers was the length and shape of their pincers, the members of the herd had short and rounded pincers when the soldiers had long and pointed ones with serrated edges. Ironside lowered his binoculars as Liza Ford, who had taken enough painkillers so that movement would no longer hurt joined his side,

“What is going on?” Liza asked,

“I’m monitoring that herd over there,” Ironside said, pointing in the herd’s direction,

Liza took his binoculars and scanned ahead of her, she soon saw the herd,

“What the hell are they?” She asked as she turned to Ironside,

“I have no idea,” Ironside said as he took the binoculars from Liza and returned his attention to the herd, they were still grazing as serenely as before,

“By what I’ve been able to ascertain, this herd move to an area of land, graze and then move on whilst under to protection of the, what I would call soldiers that have formed a cordon around them, the soldiers only feed when a member of the herd makes an offering of grass to them,” he added confidently,

“So we are safe from them?” Liza asked as she checked her belt for her gun and sabre, both were present making Liza relax a little,

“They could be herbivores, they seem to only eat vegetation, however I cannot confirm that,” Ironside stated as he looked away from the herd and turned to Liza, she smiled at him, it was surprising to think that Ironside could work out all of that information by merely watching the creatures, the more time that they had spent together on this planet Liza found herself liking Ironside more and more,

“How are you doing?” He asked with genuine concern,

“I could be better,” Liza replied, finding it surprising that an enemy of hers would be interested in her well being,

“You could also be dead,” Ironside pointed out as he turned back to the herd, at that moment Ironside had noticed that the soldier insects had become rigid, their antennae had all turned to the same direction, with a roar that echoed around the land five bipedal creatures appeared, they were humanoid in appearance, covered in scales that were dark green, Ironside could just about make out their eyes that were black and lifeless,

“These could be trouble,” Ironside said as he watched with interest as the five bipeds ran with great speed towards the herd, with long talons reaching out of the tips of the three digits on their big hands, the herds soldiers formed a defensive line which would impress the proudest of Federation officers, a brief battle took place, the planets sun flashed on shining talons and pincers, soon the soldiers had won, if only by the fact that they had superiority in their larger numbers, although six of the soldiers were now dead and only two of the bipeds had fallen. Ironside took a deep breath even Liza had seen the action without having binoculars, she turned to Ironside,

“What the hell were they?” She asked,

“I think we have just seen why all of the planetary surveying teams that were sent to this rock never came back,” Ironside said as he noticed flares of brilliant red light reach up into the sky, he raised his binoculars to see them, he couldn’t make out much about them, just the fact that they were globe like in shape and all of the flares seemed to be identical.

“I think we should be very careful from now on,” Ironside said as he turned to Liza with a grave expression.

Roxy Davis had decided to take a break from working with the repair teams onboard the Arien and to spend some time with her mother, brother and sister. The four of them sat at a bar that was within the spaceport complex, it was a small pokey dive of a place, that was dimly lit by orange light panels on the walls, the clientele ranged from space pirates to legitimate business people,

“I still can’t believe that I have finally found you, I had given up hope when I was arrested on Gauda Prime,” a beaming Roxy said to her mother, who apart from the odd wrinkle and the colour of her hair was the spitting image of her oldest daughter,

“I am so glad to see you, I have missed you, I was only saying to Kerril and Keiran the other day that I wish that I could see you again,” Mia Davis said with she gave Roxy yet another hug,

“So what were you arrested for?” Kerril asked, who looked to her mother and brother,

“I was arrested but not officially charged, Kerr said that because I lived in zone four on Gauda Prime and with the Federation beginning to build over that area to expand the city, they were just trying to get rid of me,” Roxy explained,

“Didn’t they ask you to move?” Kerril asked curiously,

“They did but I didn’t want to leave, it was my home,” Roxy said defiantly,

“You don’t say no to the Federation and expect to carry on with life like nothing had happened,” Mia said knowingly,

“I know that now,” Roxy said before raising her glass of sparkling mineral water to her lips and taking a sip,

“You call Logan by his first name?” Keiran asked curiously, knowing that alpha grades are only called by their first name by family or loved ones,

“Yeah, he and I were an item until recently,” Roxy said sadly,

“What happened?” Kerril asked,

“We had a row,” Roxy said with regret,

“Every couple have the odd row Roxy, it is a test of character to get over them and carry on,” Mia said,

“I know mum, I mean Kerr and I had hardly argued until recently, he said that we needed time apart, to see if we still felt that same way for each other later,” Roxy replied,

“Well, it doesn’t sound too bad to me, he hasn’t shut the door on you,” Mia said hopefully,

“I know but it just hurts not being able to hold him, I mean, he has lovely hands and a beautiful kiss, I just miss being close with him,” Roxy said as she began to cry,

“Hey, don’t let go of the water works yet,” Mia said as she hugged her daughter to comfort her,

“It’s not the end of the world,” she added soothingly,

“It feels like it,” Roxy wept,

“What was the argument about?” Keiran asked,

Roxy turned to him, her eyes were blood shot and full of hurt, she needed to talk to someone about it,

“Kerr and I had been together for about eight months, however in all that time we haven’t consummated our relationship yet,”

“You mean in all that time you haven’t slept with him?” Kerril asked in disbelief, in the past Roxanne was usually jumping into bed with her partners inside of the first week,

“That’s right,” Roxy said weakly,

“What’s held you back? He doesn’t look too bad, a little rough around the edges but quite attractive,” Mia asked,

Roxy lowered her head, she had only ever told Logan about what happened to her on Earth, the reason why she had to leave, her mother had the right to know and maybe she could offer Roxy some advice,

“There is nothing wrong with Kerr, he is a lovely man, it’s me, I just can’t bring myself to do to, every time we come close I freeze up,”

“Why?” Mia asked insistently,

“I was raped,” Roxy said sadly, even with Ryan dead and the fact that the rape had happened over four years ago it still hurt to say it, the shame of that day she could never bury no matter how hard she tried,

“Raped?” Keiran gasped,

“You’re kiddin’?” Kerril asked,

Roxy shook her head as her family looked at her in shock, they couldn’t believe it,

“Since that day I have found it difficult to form relationships with any man,” Roxy said sadly,

“I couldn’t blame you,” Kerril said understandingly,

“And that is why you haven’t been with Logan yet?” Mia asked,

“Yeah,”

“Have you told Logan?” Mia asked,

“I have, that is why he had waited for so long,” Roxy answered,

“Logan must really love you if he has waited this long for you. You are in a dangerous world Roxanne Davis, one where it is likely that you could die tomorrow, surely you would rather have been loved and cared for during your last sexual encounter, not abused by a man who didn’t have your consent, feeling nothing but fear and hatred?” Mia said, trying to show her daughter some reason,

Roxy nodded, she understood what her mother was saying,

“Do you like Logan?” Roxy asked her mother,

“He’s better than most of the men you brought home, although I would have to meet him properly to give you a more informed answer,” Mia said with a smile,

“If you truly felt loved by him don’t give up on him, this is just one of those moments that are sent to try you,” she added as she raised her glass to Roxy,

“For the future.” 

Night was falling and it was beginning to grow cold as Liza Ford and Lyle Ironside huddled closer to their camp fire, Ironside stoked the flames with a length of timber that had been cut from a tree, Liza’s sabre had come in very useful for requiring fire wood. Liza let out a sigh, her injuries still caused her great discomfort but she was most definitely feeling better, Ironside’s medical training had been an incredible help,

“I guess that we are stuck here,” she said, sounding low,

Ironside looked at her from the other side of the fire, in the glow of the campfire she looked radiant and her eyes glowed,

“I do not think that we will be here too long. What is expecting you?”

“I am expected to arrive at a meeting shortly, with the whole of Federation Space Command and the High Council,” Liza bit sharply,

“Very important then,” Ironside said dryly with a hint of sarcasm,

“What were you doing here?” Liza asked, trying to make some kind of conversation, she was beginning to become bored,

“Doing a survey for the alliance,” Ironside replied flatly, not allowing Liza to know anything more, especially the reasons behind the survey. Liza reached for her back, she bite her lower lip as a pain shot up her spine,

“What is it?” Ironside asked as he stood up and walked around the fire,

“Just shooting pains, I get them occasionally,” Liza explained as Ironside walked to the medical case that he had recovered from the crashed pursuit ship a day after rescuing Liza,

“Have you a history of back pain?” He asked as he searched through the medical kit, soon finding what he was looking for, a back support,

“Yes, ever since getting my back torn apart by a land mine on one of my first tours of duty,” Liza said wincing as Ironside wrapped the support around Liza’s slim waist and tightened it making Liza groan uncomfortably,

“When did it happen?” Ironside asked, he wanted to know more about this woman, Liza trembled, his closeness sent an exquisite shudder up her spine,

“Nine years ago on Wanta, when the Federation tried to take the planet, if it wasn’t for a young pioneering doctor who insisted that he try a new form of surgery on me, something called D.N.A restructuring, I would never of returned to service, I would have been a cripple for the rest of my life,” Liza explained as Ironside sat next to her, he looked surprised,

“What is it?” Liza asked, noticing his surprise,

“That young cadet was you?” Ironside asked,

“Yes, why?”

“Because I was that young pioneering doctor,” Ironside said with a smile,

“I always wondered how that cadet got on,” he added,

“Then you have saved my life twice,” Liza said with a smile,

“I guess so. How does the support feel?” Ironside asked,

“Not bad, it has made my back feel better anyway, thank you,” Liza said with a warm genuine smile.

Suddenly Liza heard something moving behind her, she glanced at Ironside who had obviously heard it too, Liza took a hold of her gun and looked over her shoulder, with a loud scream two of the scaled bipeds appeared out of the nearby forest walls, running at the two humans with their long talons extended. Forgetting the pain that coursed through her body, Liza jumped to her feet and opened fire, her plasma bolts simply impacted on the creatures and bounced harmlessly into the forest causing small fires in the trees, the creatures continued to charge at them, Liza’s gun fire did nothing to slow them down. Ironside watched as the creatures closed in, he suddenly remembered a time when Logan and Roxy were talking to him about some alien creature that had infiltrated their base on Domserrat, one that matched the description of the two creatures that were now bearing down on him, he turned to Liza who was cursing and swearing as she fired in vain at the scaled bipeds,

“Use your sabre Liza, your gun will have no effect on them,” Ironside called out,

“What are you talking about?” Liza called back,

“Use your sabre, that is the only way that you can kill them,” Ironside ordered,

Without any hesitation Liza dropped her gun, grabbed hold of her sabre, extended the silver blade and struck as the aliens came into range, they were fast but Liza was quicker and the two scaled creatures hit the ground with a thud with green ooze spilling out of the cuts that Liza's sabre had just made, she stood over the bodies, breathing hard as she fought her fatigue as her body reminded her of its current condition,

“How did you know?” Liza asked, Ironside’s appeal was growing,

“Logan and Roxy had faced such an animal when they were still on Domserrat,” Ironside said as he scooped up Liza’s handgun and gave it back to her,

“Are you going to be all right?” He asked, seeing the pain that Liza was in as she slid the gun back into its holster,

“I will be, trust me on that,” Liza said in deep breaths as she closed down her sabre and turned to Ironside, at which point she passed out and fell into his arms,

“Yes, but not just yet,” Ironside said with a smile before he carried Liza back to the warmth of the campfire.

Roxy and Mia Davis were walking to landing bay twenty six to where the Arien was waiting, another day had passed and the ship still need further repairs, and Logan had just called for her,

“Are you going to stay with Logan?” Mia asked,

“In which way?” Roxy questioned,

“In either way,” Mia replied,

“I’m not sure at the moment, I have enjoyed being here,” Roxy said as they reached the small checking in office that opened into a tunnel which lead into the landing platform where the two women stopped,

“I would love you to stay,” Mia said warmly,

“You would always be welcome,” she added,

“Thank you mum, I’ll remember that but at the moment I’ve got work to do,” Roxy said sombrely,

“I haven’t yet decided on what I’ll be doing, but I feel that I owe it to dad to keep fighting, in a hope that I kill the woman who killed him,” Roxy added,

“You know who killed him?” Mia asked, sounding shocked,

“Yes, an evil woman who is now the Supreme Commander of the Federation, Liza Ford,” Roxy answered,

“Liza Ford would not have killed your father,” Mia said surely,

“What do you mean?” Roxy asked,

“She told me,”

“Your father worked with the Fords, especially Liza’s uncle, they were partners in archaeology, they often worked together,” Mia said, sounding surprised that Roxanne could ever think such a thing,

“I am surprised that you haven’t asked me why your father and I separated,” Mia said curiously,

“I didn’t wish to bring up the past, and besides you must have had your reasons,” Roxy said,

“I left your father because he had an affair with the niece of his partner, I found them together at home. You were doing well, working in the city engineering plant, at the time you were on that course to try and get your grading raised to an alpha, I wasn’t going to interrupt that,” Mia explained before Roxy cut her off,

“Are you saying that dad had an affair with Liza Ford?” She asked, her eyes were wide and almost tearful,

“That is right. I was heart broken when I found out, without thinking I took your brother and sister and left Earth, I’m sorry to have left you behind, I was just so upset, I couldn’t bear staying,” Mia said apologetically,

“Dad never told me, why didn’t he tell me?” Roxy asked,

“I don’t know, perhaps he didn’t want you to leave him as well,” Mia offered,

“He should have told me, to let me know where you had gone,” Roxy said weakly,

“He didn’t know where we had gone, I didn’t tell him but the moment I arrived here I tried to call you, to explain but due to the rebels destroying a communications transmission boosting centre I wasn’t able to call Earth,” Mia said as she held her oldest daughter, who looked as though she was close to collapsing where she stood,

Roxy looked into her mother’s eyes, she felt numb,

“Did you love dad?” She asked,

“Very much, it hurt to leave him, it really did,” Mia replied softly as all of a sudden the planetary alarm went off, the air was suddenly filled with the sounds of explosions, the ground trembled and windows shook.

Roxy looked around the office, not knowing what was happening, everyone in the office stopped what they were doing and began to run hurriedly towards the exits, some of them were screaming and panicking,

“Get to your ship, you’ll be safe there,” Mia said quickly, 

“It’s an air raid,” she added as Mia pushed he daughter towards the tunnel,

“I’ll see you later,” Roxy called out before running to the Arien, she sprinted down the tunnel and soon reached the opening where the Arien sat, Logan was stood under the ship waiting for her,

“Hurry Roxy,” he called out,

As Roxy was about to enter the landing bay, a missile exploded on the roof of the spaceport, the tunnel cracked, its walls caved in and the roofing crashed down, sending a heavy cloud of concrete dust into the air, burying Roxy under its heavy weight, Logan stood stunned, he couldn’t move for a moment as what he had just seen sank in,

“Roxy,” he finally shouted as he ran to where the opening to the tunnel had been and to the pile of metal and concrete that stood in its place, the dust began to settle as Logan rushed on top of the rubble and, taking in a deep breath to summon all of his inner strength, he began to push the heavy boulders aside one by one, driven by the need to save the woman he loved, tears ran down his dirty concrete dust covered face as he finally reached his woman, he stopped for a moment, looking at the half buried blonde, blood dribbled out of her mouth, nose and ears and her arm looked to be dislocated,

“Roxy, don’t be dead you hear,” Logan said as he took her hand, he felt for a pulse, he could feel one but it was fading fast,

“Don’t die,” Logan wept.

Roxy’s eyes slowly opened, they were blood shot, she looked at Logan who smiled hopefully,

“I love you,” she said with a broken voice,

“I love you too,” Logan said, breathing heavily.

Roxy managed a smile before her life slipped away, leaving Logan crying by her side.

The air raid had stopped, the emergency services had arrived too late to help Roxy, Logan had already removed her from the rumble, he was sat on the ground by her side, his body ached but he was numbed by her loss, he simply sat looking at her body wishing that he could have done something more to help her, cursing himself for calling Roxy back to the ship in the first place knowing that she would still be alive now if he hadn’t, Karla Ford sat beside him, she gave him a grave look,

“I’m sorry Logan,” she said softly,

“I know what she meant to you,”

Logan did not respond, not until the emergency team arrived to take Roxy’s body away,

“I’ve told her mother, she is on her way,” Karla said sadly,

Logan nodded as he helped two paramedics lift Roxy onto a trolley,

“Roxy, Roxy,” Mia screamed tearfully as she rushed passed the emergency services and ran to the trolley side, she looked at her fallen daughter, tears flooded from her green eyes,

“I’m so sorry Mia,” Logan said weakly,

Mia Davis gave him an angered glare,

“If it wasn’t for you she would still be alive,” she snapped,

Logan staggered backwards, her words hit him harder than any interrogator or plasma bolt ever could, but he couldn’t find a response, losing Roxy had struck him harder than he could ever have thought possible, it still hadn’t sank in yet, he watched, numbed as Roxy’s body was taken from him by her mother,

“She didn’t mean it Logan, she is just upset,” Karla said, offering him her support by putting an arm around him, Logan shrugged her off,

“No Karla, she is right, it was my fault,” Logan snapped as he stormed off, leaving Karla standing under the Arien as the ships other crew members began to descend the landing ramp,

“What the hell happened?” Samantha asked,

“Roxy’s dead,” Karla said as she turned and headed to the landing ramp, leaving Samantha and Danial looking surprised under the hull of the Arien.

Liza Ford sat on the ground by the remains of their campfire, she was studying the ultrasonic ground depth analyser,

“Could this by converted to send a verbal message?” She asked,

“I don’t see why not,” Ironside said as he handed Liza a food bar,

“Thank you,” Liza said before taking the silver wrapped nutrient bar,

“Why do you ask?” Ironside asked as he sat down beside her,

“I was thinking that we could use it to send out a message, a call for help,” Liza answered, sounding hopeful,

“We could do, but I’m already expecting the Arien to return to pick me up, going by what you said about the little battle you had up there Logan would have got away from your ships and found a safe port to do any repairs that might be needed,” Ironside said as he pointed up to the sky,

“What am I supposed to do once you have left, sit here and twiddle my thumbs?” Liza snapped,

“I could send a signal to Federation Command, telling them where you are,” Ironside offered,

“Logan may not let you do that, if he finds out that I am down here he will come down himself to kill me, I know him and I would expect him to try,” Liza countered,

“I prefer the idea of sending out a transmission myself, it isn’t as if I do not trust you Ironside, I just do not trust your friends on the Arien,” she added as she placed her hand on Ironside’s thigh as if to console him.

Ironside and Liza looked into each other’s eyes, Ironside smiled,

“I have always been told that you are a heartless bitch, however I always thought that there was another side to you Liza,” Ironside said calmly,

“I’m sure that I could let you find out,” Liza said huskily as she moved closer to Ironside,

“You see that there is nothing that I find more attractive than a man with a high intelligence and good looks,” Liza added as she prepared to kiss the doctor,

“I’m sure that the Federation would not appreciate their Supreme Commander fraternising with the enemy,” Ironside said warmly,

“But I do not see you as an enemy Ironside, but something far more appealing,” Liza said just before she pushed her lips tentatively onto Ironside’s.

After a brief moment of uncertainty they held each other close, surprising themselves with the passion that flowed, it wasn’t long before they undressed each other and were making love in the open air, their bodies and souls becoming one, until the final release as they cried out their climaxes that echoed around the other words quiet landscape. 

It was early morning, a day after Roxy’s death as Kerr Logan walked sadly along the sea front, his thoughts were of one person, even though he was surrounded by the beauty of the ocean, the beach and the salty smell of the air that was carried by a softly blowing breeze, he felt miserable. Logan stopped by a three foot high wall that lined the sandy beach and sat down, he looked out at the horizon, wondering if all of this fighting was really worth it, he let out a sigh, he had never wanted to be involved in this war in the first place but with Confusers breathing down his neck he had no choice, he only wished that he could have told Roxy about him, so she could understand why he was so desperate to bring the Federation down.

“I can’t do this without you Roxy, I need you so much,” he said as he buried his face in his hands,

“You’re going to have to,”

Logan glanced up to see Mia Davis gravely walking towards him,

“Your friends told me where to find you,” Mia said, seeing the question on Logan’s mind,

“I know what you are going to say, and yes, her death was my fault. If I wasn’t so stubborn she would still be alive,” Logan said sadly,

Mia Davis sat beside him,

“I think that I said something that I should not have said. It wasn’t your fault, how were you to know that the Federation would launch an attack on the planet?” She said softly,

Logan shook his head,

“I’ve lost the most important person in my life,” he said as he covered his face with his hands,

Mia put an arm around him,

“I know what you mean,” she said understandingly,

“She told me about you, how you two met and how and when she fell in love with you, it saddened her to argue with you, it hurt her when you told her that you two should cool your relationship,” she told Logan,

“At first I couldn’t see what she saw in you, I thought that you were like every other man that she used to bring home when we lived on Earth, each one cheated on her one way or another but now I see why she rated you so highly. I must say that I have never seen her fall so heavily for anyone, not like the way that she had fallen for you,” she went on,

“She meant everything to me, I was a fool not to see that but now she is dead and I miss her so much,” Logan told Mia, his heart felt as if it had been torn out, he felt so empty.

“I was glad to see Roxanne again, even if it was only briefly. I must say that it was strange seeing her with blonde hair, although I must admit that the colour suited her,” Mia said with fondness,

Logan managed a smile,

“I’ve only seen her with brunette hair once, and that was a brief moment years ago at a supply warehouse on Earth,” he said a he looked into Mia’s eyes,

“I think that blonde looked more natural for her than the brunette that she was born with. One other thing that I noticed about her was that she didn’t seem to like wearing skirts anymore,” Mia said with a frown,

“I ‘d never seen her in a skirt,” Logan responded,

“Strange that, I mean she always wore skirts or dresses when we lived together on Earth, some of the skirts that she would wear would be more useful as belts, they hardly covered her bum but then she was a right show off,” Mia said with a thin smile,

“That could have been an interesting sight,” Logan said, smiling,

“I always told her that she had nice legs,” he added as Mia rose to her feet,

“I better go, I came here to tell you that her funeral will be in the city crematorium on Oak Street at two o’clock tomorrow afternoon, I would like you to attend, Roxanne would have wanted it,” she said as she rested a hand on Logan’s shoulder,

“Don’t beat yourself up over this,” she added warmly,

“Who else is there?” Logan asked sombrely,

Mia gave him a saddened look,

“I’ll see you tomorrow,”

“I’ll be there,” Logan said with a faint sign of a smile,

“And thank you Mia,”

“You’re welcome,” Mia quietly said before walking away, towards a waiting transport. 

Once Mia had entered the transport and driven off Logan looked up into the clear blue sky,

“That’s it Confusers, I’m finished with you, it’s over, I’m not going to do this for you anymore,” he shouted, not caring if anyone heard him,

“Will you shut up, the Circle Of Infinity could find out that I’ve been helping you,” Confusers said as he appeared by Logan’s side,

“Why the hell should I care?” Logan asked angrily,

“I’ve had enough, I’m quitting,” he snapped,

“You would let man fall? I doubt that,” Confusers said firmly with a mocking smile,

“Try me,” Logan countered,

“And besides, what gives your people the right to remove races at their leisure?” He asked,

“We created you, that is our right,” Confusers snapped,

“That isn’t enough. You say that man is to be removed because it is no longer growing, adapting and because it was too war like,” Logan said,

“That is right,” Confusers replied as he sat beside Logan,

“How long have you been doing this kind of thing?”

“What kind of thing?” Confusers asked,

“Creating races and then destroying them,” Logan answered,

“For more years then you could know,” Confusers said with a quizzical look,

“Why?” He asked,

“When was the last time that your people grew and adapted?” Logan asked,

“We have been like we are for millions of your years,” Confusers replied,

“Ah,” Logan snapped as he quickly rose to his feet and pointed at Confusers accusingly,

“Meaning that your people have shown no signs of change for over a million years where as man has shown no change for little over three hundred, also your race is far more destructive than man could ever be, at least we keep our wars to ourselves and not eliminate every other race as we see fit, I think that your people do not follow their own rules, that they just make it up as they go along?” Logan said with a victorious smile,

Confusers gave him a blank look, no race had ever questioned the Circle before, now that one had Confusers was a little concerned, maybe man was only going to be destroyed because it had the ability to question things, Confusers suddenly thought that one day man would supersede the Circle Of Infinity and take control and that is what his colleagues were afraid of,

“I do not want man to die,” Confusers said weakly as Logan stood before him sensing a small victory,

“Tell me how I can stop it,” Logan demanded,

“I cannot but the time is very close,” Confusers stated, still sounding a little dazed,

“Give me back Roxy and I’ll do it,” Logan demanded,

Confusers rose to his feet, he walked passed Logan and headed to a small shelter before coming to a sudden stop,

“I cannot promise you that I will,” he said before fading away before Logan’s very eyes.

Kerr Logan walked into the flight deck of the Arien, the remains of his crew were working hard on certain sections of the flight deck, he stopped, his face showed his fatigue, he was tired, so very tired. Samantha King and Karla Ford turned to him, both were concerned for their leader,

“Are you okay Logan?” Karla asked, sounding sincere,

“I wish I was, it just hasn’t sunk in yet,” Logan said tiredly as he sat at Roxy’s control board,

“You are not going to give up are you?” Samantha asked, hearing a resigned tone in Logan’s words,

“I don’t know, I’m not sure on what I’m fighting for anymore,” Logan answered sadly as he looked at the ship systems control instrumentation before him,

“We can’t give up,” Danial Carson said as he turned from working under the Slave computer,

“Why not, you were never in the fight Danial,” Logan said as he turned to the other man,

“I have no choice now, like you I’m a fugitive I will not be safe until the Federation has fallen and for some reason I feel that you are the one to bring them down,” Danial said in a flat tone,

“I’m surprised to hear you say that,” Logan said as Karla and Samantha turned to each other, both looking surprised,

“I was surprised to find out as well,” Danial said as he walked towards the group’s leader,

“But you will not quit, not now,” Danial added firmly,

“You see, this is war, in war people die, it just happens, so you are going to have to live with that fact that Roxy is dead, she is not the first and most certainly will not be the last, so live with it, we have a war to win,” Danial snapped firmly, glaring into Logan’s eyes.

Kerr Logan rose to his feet, everyone thought that he was going to strike Danial, Danial prepared himself for the blow to fall but instead Logan turned and without saying another word he walked out of the flight deck towards his cabin.

Liza Ford and Lyle Ironside had been working solidly on creating a long range communications system using the ultrasonic ground depth analyser, a high frequency life scanner and a small hand held comlink, they were close to completing the construction work but it still needed to be tested,

“I am very surprised by your skills Lyle,” Liza said with a smile, she looked on as Ironside fitted the comlink into the scanner, he smirked as he turned to Liza,

“I have the knack of picking up things very quickly,” he replied as he reached out his hand to Liza,

“Duct tape please,” he asked,

Liza reached down to her left, picked up a thick roll of silver tape and passed it over to him with a warm smile,

“I have always had a weakness for intelligence,” she said huskily,

“I’ve always had a weakness for very long shapely legs,” Ironside replied with a smile as he looked her legs up and down,

Liza smiled, her heart was racing as Ironside took the tape and tore off a length, using it to seal the comlink and scanner together,

“That should do it,” he said as he gave Liza a warm smile,

“Shall I give it a try?” Liza asked, reaching out for what she hoped would be her way off of the rock that she was marooned on,

“You will have to set the frequency first,” Ironside said as he handed the communicator over to her,

Liza took the communicator and set the dial, it took her a while to find the correct Federation com-channel, a constant pulsing sound resounded from the com units one and only speaker once she had found it, Liza’s smile widened,

“Perfect,” she said before raising the microphone to her lips,

“This is Supreme Commander Liza Ford speaking, calling Federation Space Command, respond please,”

There was a moment of silence before a reply came back,

“This is Space Command, please verify your I.D,”

“Registration code, one zero three nine five zero point two alpha plus, Liza Karen Ford, Supreme Commander of the Terran Federation, please confirm registration code and voice pattern,” Liza stated firmly,

“Liza Karen Ford?” Ironside mouthed making Liza grin,

“Karen is my mothers name,” Liza quickly explained,

It didn’t take them too long to reply,

“Supreme Commander Ford, we thought that you were dead,”

“It was a close run thing, I need a pick up now,” she commanded,

“We have locked on to your location Supreme Commander, help will arrive very shortly,”

“Thank you Space Command, Liza Ford out,”

Liza turned to Ironside, she looked happier now that she knew that help was on its way,

“What do we do now?” Ironside asked as Liza set the communicator onto the ground,

“I know what I want to do,” Liza said in a husky tone as she gave Ironside a suggestive look,

“I want more of what we done earlier, I’m not sure how much time we will have together so I want to enjoy every minute,” Liza said as she moved across to Ironside, who was smiling broadly,

“Why not,” he said as he took Liza into his arms and gave her a long and passionate kiss.

Karla Ford shook Logan as hard as she could without pushing him off of his bed, even though it was the middle of the morning he was fast asleep,

“Logan, get up,” she shouted,

Logan stirred, his eyes slowly opened, he looked at Karla with tired blood shot eyes in a state of confusion,

“What is it?” He asked tiredly,

“You’ve got a call to answer, it is Roxy’s mother, she sounds very excited,” Karla explained as Logan came to,

“Mia?” He asked,

“Yes,”

Logan suddenly snapped out of his tiredness, he jumped out of bed and ran out of his room, Karla followed after him, when they reached the flight deck Logan rushed to the communications board, hitting the external com-line button so hard that he cracked it,

“This is Logan,”

“Logan, this is Mia, could you come to the central hospital please?” She asked, she did sound very excited,

“What’s happened?” Logan asked,

“It’s Roxanne, she is alive,” Mia replied, sounding as if it hadn’t yet sunk in,

“Alive?” Logan asked weakly as his crew looked on, all were as shocked as he was,

“Yes Logan, she has asked for you, also could you bring her some clothes,” Mia said,

“I, I, I shall, I’m on my way, thank you Mia,” Logan stammered as he cut off the communication,

“I don’t believe it,” Samantha said, he eyes wide with a stunned smile, reflecting Danial’s exact expression,

“For some reason I do. It is not the first time I have known this to happen is it Logan?” Karla said as she turned to the group’s leader,

“Certainly isn’t. I’ll see you later,” Logan said as he charged out of the flight deck. 

Logan regained his composure as he entered the room where he had been told Roxy was, Mia and her other two offspring were with Roxy, a doctor was also present saying with stunned surprise,

“I just don’t believe it but you are in excellent health, mentally and physically, I’ve just never seen this happen before,”

“Thank you Doctor Pierce,” Mia said warmly before she noticed Logan who was still standing by the door with a green equipment bag in one hand,

Roxy turned to him, her eyes lit up as she called out,

“Kerr,”

Logan just stared at her, he couldn’t believe that she was alive and the fact that she looked a picture of health, Roxy was a sight for his sore and tired eyes, she was _gorgeous,_

“I got here as fast as I could,” Logan found himself saying as he stepped closer to her bed, offering her the bag,

Roxy smiled, she took the bag and looked inside,

“Thank you Kerr,” she said, seeing the small huddle of black fabric and a pair of ankle boots that sat in the bottom of the bag,

“Mum, Keiran and Kerril, I’d like to speak to Kerr alone please,” she said as she looked at each of the members of her family,

“Certainly,” Kerril said as she gestured towards the door.

Soon Roxy and Logan were alone, Roxy looked down at the standard issue green medical gown that she was wearing,

“I hate wearing these,” she stated as she climbed off of the bed and walked behind a screen that stood in the corner of the room. 

Logan remained silent as Roxy changed, she soon emerged wearing a pair of plain black tight fitting trousers and a light weight matching cropped jacket, she smiled at Logan before gesturing to her clothing,

“This feels better,”

“Looks better too,” Logan said with a smile, he still sounded as if he was in shock,

“Thank you,” Roxy said, smiling warmly at him,

“Now you know what it feels like to loose someone and then have them come back to you,” she added as she stepped closer to Logan,

Logan smiled at her,

“It’s an odd feeling,” he said weakly,

“At least I know why you are fighting the Federation and why you never told me the truth,” Roxy said with all seriousness,

“You met him then?” Logan asked, knowing that Roxy was talking about Confusers,

“Yes, we had an interesting little talk,” Roxy replied,

“I must thank him,” Logan said, he wanted to hold Roxy but with the way that they had argued just before her death he wasn’t sure how she would react,

“There are a couple of things that I must know Kerr, how are we going to continue?” Roxy asked,

“I would like us to stay together, I do not wish to be without you again,” Logan replied, looking into Roxy’s beautiful green eyes before looking down at his feet,

“I would like that too, the other thing I want to know is are you holding anything back from me, are there any more secrets?”

“No more secrets, you know everything about me now, you always will,” Logan replied as he looked back into her eyes, she was stunning, she glowed with a radiance that would make any star seem pale and she seemed to have a greater confidence that only enhanced her natural good looks. Roxy smiled and stepped nearer to him,

“There is just one more thing Kerr,”

“And that is?” Logan asked,

“I could do with a big hug, and an even bigger kiss,” Roxy said teasingly,

“I would like to do that,” Logan said as he took Roxy into his arms,

“Please do,” Roxy said softly before tenderly taking Logan’s lips onto her own lips as she felt his hands slide over her little buttocks, stroking her gently, one thing that Logan noticed was how different she felt, she was firmer and more toned than before, Roxy let out a soft groan, her hands began to caress his big chest, he felt good and his kiss was exquisite. Logan almost got carried away with his emotions, he had thought that he had lost Roxy forever but she was now back with him, he had missed her so much even though it had only been a day and a half, he never wanted to lose her again, after their lips parted Logan held Roxy close, tears rolled down his cheeks, tears that were once for pain were now for joy,

“I love you so much,” he said, cradling Roxy in his arms,

“I love you too,” she replied, her words came straight from her heart,

“Mother wanted to celebrate my return by going out tonight, I would like you to come with us,” Roxy said warmly, looking Logan right in the eye,

“It’s a family thing Roxy,” Logan responded softly,

“But you are family, you’re my man, I want you to be with me,” Roxy said with a smile,

“If you say so,” Logan said as Roxy wiped a tear from his eye,

“I do,” she urged,

“All right then,”

“Good, one thing I must do is get something special to wear, something that I know will hold your interest, probably something tight or revealing, or maybe both,” Roxy said with a teasing smile,

“That I’ll have to see,” Logan said, finally coming round to the fact that Roxy was alive and that he wasn't just dreaming this,

“Good, let’s go then,” Roxy said, smiling happily as she took his arm, before they headed towards the door.

Night fell over the central city of Zolaf Four, large areas of the city were still being made safe after the recent bombardment, but now there was an uneasy peace. Kerr Logan and Keiran Davis both sat at a round wooden table in the corner of a sparsely lit night bar, Logan had bought the drinks that they steadily consumed. Both men wore two piece suits, Logan’s was grey and Keiran’s was very dark green, both wore white shirts, it was a long time since Logan had worn anything like this, it felt strange, stranger still was the fact Logan was not carrying a side arm, Keiran looked around the busy bar, his eyes fell on a couple of tall and slim brunettes, both wore virtually nothing, he tapped Logan’s shoulder and gestured to them,

“What do you think?” He asked smiling,

“Yours is the one on the right,” he added, looking approvingly at the slimmer of the two women,

“You can have both of them, I’m spoken for,” Logan said as he took a sip of his light ale, it had a lovely smooth taste,

“Yeah, I know that my sister is quite attractive Logan, but what made you fall for Ro?” Keiran asked,

“Why do you call her Ro?” Logan asked curiously,

“What do you move a boat with?” Keiran questioned,

“An oar,” Logan answered, not quite understanding why he would ask such a question,

“That’s right, and that is one thing that she could never resist in doing, she always had an opinion and she always had to tell you, so you could guarantee that she would put her oar in whatever the discussion,” Keiran explained,

“So, I always called her Ro, she hates it,” he added with a smile,

Logan smiled back at him before taking another sip of his ale,

“You didn’t answer my question,” Keiran stated before taking a mouthful of his beer,

Logan smirked as he set his glass onto the table,

“At first we didn’t get on, but I guess that with what we have been through over the last couple of years it would either happen or not but when it did, bang, it hit me like a plasma bolt,”

Keiran smiled, his first impression of Logan was of a stuck up alpha grade who had enjoyed too many privileges in his life but now his opinion had changed, Logan wasn’t too bad and if his sister wanted to be with him and he made her happy then Logan was welcome. Keiran drained his glass and turned to where the two women had been standing, they had moved on but he did see the arrival of his mother and two sisters. Mia was dressed in a long slim fitting grey skirt and orange blouse, Kerril were dressed in dark coloured, long length dress and Roxy wore a mid thigh length silver and white contour dress which held her curvaceous body in its thin skin tight material, displaying her deep and mouth watering cleavage for all to see, when Logan saw her his mouth dropped, she looked extremely feminine and absolutely beautiful, he rose to his feet as the three woman arrived at the table, Roxy gave her man a warm smile as she made sure that she would be sitting by Logan’s side,

“You look gorgeous,” Logan said as he sat down with his woman,

“So do you,” Roxy replied, admiring him as she snuggled up to her man,

“Tell me Roxy, are you wearing anything under that?” Logan whispered into Roxy’s ear, the material of the dress was so thin and tight he couldn’t see any seam lines protruding from under it,

“If you are good I might let you find out,” Roxy replied with a cheeky grin, she was glowing with confidence,

“I’ll be good then,” Logan said softly making Roxy grin happily.

“I’ll get the drinks, the usual for you two?” Keiran asked as he turned to Mia and Kerril,

“Yes please,” they said in unison,

“Same again Logan?”

“Yes please,”

“Roxy?”

“I’ll have a dry white wine,” Roxy said as Logan put an arm around her, she pushed herself against him, finding Kerr very comfortable.

As Keiran headed towards the bar, Mia turned to Logan and Roxy,

“You two look like a perfect couple, so when can I expect a wedding invite?”

“Mother?” Roxy said, almost blushing, marriage had never been discussed before,

“We are playing it by ear at the moment,” Logan said as he placed a hand on Roxy’s thigh and began to stroke her gently, Roxy’s smiled widened, his hand was most welcome,

“When you decide you must let me know,” Mia said with a smile,

Roxy looked into Kerr’s eyes, she smiled before saying,

“I’m sure we would, wouldn’t we?”

“Absolutely,” Logan said surely, unseen by the others his hand moved higher up her thigh just under the hem of her dress, Roxy’s eyes lit up, she almost blushed as she placed her hand on his but it wasn’t to stop him, it was to encourage him,

“So, what are your plans?” Kerril asked as Keiran returned with a tray that had five full glasses of various beverages set upon it,

“Well, we have to pick up our friend Ironside,” Roxy replied,

“If he is still our friend after this, I’m sure that he hasn’t appreciated being stranded on an unclassified planet on his own for all this time,” Logan said with a smile,

“And then what?” Kerril pressed,

“We keep on the fight,” Roxy said adamantly,

“You’re joking, after what has happened?” Roxy’s sister asked, sounding as shocked as the other family members looked, Logan had seen that exact expression on Roxy before, Kerril was much like her older sister except that Kerril was a few inches taller and had brunette hair,

“Yes, because of what happened,” Roxy explained,

“You’re crazy,” Kerril snapped,

“You always said that I was,” Roxy replied,

“Damn right, you would always get yourself into dangerous situations Roxy, and funnily enough it was always when you were with a new man,” Kerril snapped before turning to Logan,

“No offence Logan,” she quickly added,

Logan gave Kerril a hard glare, one that unnerved her, he didn’t like seeing someone attacking Roxy, he knew that Roxy was far more sensible than what Kerril was implying, it was insulting,

“Do you think that I would follow a man blindly?” Roxy countered,

“You have in the past, like what’s his name, Gregory, you would have followed him to a death sentence, he was involved with dealing Shadow, you protected him remember when the Federation police had arrested him,” Kerril reminded her sister,

“True, I was a fool then but I was only eighteen, I am not the same woman as I was back then.”

“It is still the same thing though, you will fight for him,” Kerril retorted as she pointed a finger at Logan, she didn’t like the idea of her sister going into battle,

“You would die for him too and don’t say that you wouldn’t because I know you Roxy, you still hold to those old ideals,” she added,

“Every time you have been involved with a man you have always let your heart make the decisions and that has usually got you into trouble,” Kerril told Roxy sternly,

“Let it rest Kerril,” Kerian said to his younger sister, not wanting to witness yet another argument between his two siblings,

“You are going to back this stupid idea?” Kerril questioned,

“I do not agree with it but it is Ro’s decision not ours, it is up to her so drop it,” Kerian snapped firmly,

“And by the way, Roxy wasn’t the only one to get careless when she was in love now was she, you have made a few bad decisions in the past. Do I have to remind you of Hillier?”

Kerril gave him a blank look,

“Hillier?” Roxy asked, she lent closer, wanting to know about this part of her little sisters past that she had missed,

“Yeah, Kerril got involved with a guy that ended up being a small arms supplier to the underground, like pistols and rifles and you know what the Federation is like with unlicensed firearms.”

“They would arrest and charge you on the same day and anyone that they consider as helping them,” Logan pointed out, knowing that full well after his previous occupations as a Federation officer and smuggler,

“How did you avoid arrest?” Roxy asked Kerril,

“I did a runner out of the main sewage works when the Federation stormed into his home where his stored his wares,” Kerril replied sombrely, she still missed him even after the two years since his arrest,

“What happened to Hillier?” Roxy asked,

“He was sent to a penal colony, I don’t know which one,” Kerril answered,

“Was he a good man?” Roxy asked,

“Yes, he always treated me right, he always had time for me and I let him down,” Kerril said with a sad sigh,

“If you had stayed with him you would also be on a penal colony,” Logan stated firmly with icy logic,

“At times, I wish I was then I’d be with him,”

Roxy looked over her shoulder at Logan, she felt the same way for Kerr as Kerril had obviously felt for Hillier, she could understand the regret, 

“Hey, less of this, we are here to celebrate so let’s celebrate,” Mia said as she looked around the table, sensing that the atmosphere had become too heavy and serious, she raised her glass to Roxy,

“To Roxanne and to her recovery,” she said with a raised voice as everyone around the table, including Kerril, raised their glasses and gestured to Roxy, who was now smiling happily, grateful to be able to spend some time with her family and the man she loved.

Roxy had enjoyed the night out as she returned to the Arien with Logan, the other members of the Arien’s crew were already asleep. Logan and Roxy walked with arms around each other to their cabins. Roxy was slightly merry but Logan had not been affected by the alcohol that he had drank, Roxy had noticed that drinking anything that contained alcohol would never impair Kerr at all, no matter how much he drank it seemed he was immune to the affects, she was sure that he could drink the whole planet under the table. They stopped by Roxy’s cabin door, she hit the door control and turned to Logan who was checking out the blondes body, he loved her remarkable figure and she noticed his hungry eyes, she loved the attention,

“I am certain that you aren’t wearing anything under that,” Logan said with a smile as Roxy pushed her back against the doorframe,

“As I said earlier my sweet, if you behave tonight I would let you find out,” she said teasingly as she arched her back, pulling her shoulders back and pushed out her chest whilst resting her hands on her flat stomach,

“Have I behaved?” Logan asked huskily as he stepped closer to Roxy and slipped his hands around the back of her tiny waist,

“I think so,” Roxy answered softly as she looked into her room,

“So, do you want to find out?” She asked suggestively,

“I would love to,” Logan answered,

Roxy smiled and took Logan’s hand, she stepped into the room, she quickly touched the door control and when the door closed behind them she set the lock,

“We can’t be disturbed now,” she said with a smile,

With her back turned to the bed and Logan standing in front of her, Roxy looked longingly into Logan’s lustful eyes, he placed his hands on her waist, Roxy’s hands came to rest on his big arms, whilst still looking into each others eyes they slowly made their way to the bed, with one step Logan slipped one shoe off, his next step relived him of the second, Roxy did the same, losing a few inches of height in the process, knowing there was nothing standing between her and the bed, Roxy walked backward, eyes fixed on Logan’s, after a few steps Roxy moved her hands to the buttons of her lovers suit jacket, she released them, slid her hands under the jacket and over Logan’s broad shoulders, he let go of Roxy’s waist just long enough to allow the jacket fall behind him, Roxy then began to unfasten the buttons of his crisp white shirt,

“I love a man in a white shirt,” she cooed,

“I’ll remember that,” he replied with a smile,

By the time they stopped at the side of the bed, Roxy was helping Logan remove his shirt, now bare chested, she enjoyed his appearance, he had a strong chest, tight stomach muscles and a light dusting of chest hair, the only thing she didn’t like was the scarring of his many battles, she got very excited, feeling those long since forgotten feelings, knowing what was going to happen as Roxy unfastened his trouser belt, she then took hold for his trouser zipper and slid it down, with the weight of the belt his trousers fell to the floor, Logan stepped out of the trousers and flicked them away from the bed with one foot, Roxy looked down, he wore snug fitting dark purple under shorts,

“Purple?” She asked,

“I remember sometime ago you saying you liked the colour,” he said with a smile as he stepped closer and with both hands took the front zipper of Roxy’s tight fitting dress and began to lower it,

“You remembered,” Roxy said happily as she felt the thin and tight material of her dress release her from its grasp,

This would be the point Roxy knew those voices in her head would tell her to stop, to gather her clothes and run, but that voice was silent, finally her head was agreeing with her heart, Roxy wasn’t nervous, she was excited, apprehensive, eager, the dress landed on the floor, Logan gasped when he saw Roxy’s beautiful form from under her dress, as he has suspected she wore no underwear, he marvelled at her perfect honey toned skin, her tight stomach, and perfect breasts, Roxy could see he was happy, he was looking at her hungrily, as she was looking at him, she sat on the bed and pulled Logan gently to her, she hooked her fingers under the waist band of his handsome under garment,

“You always wear such sexy under shorts?” she asked as she slowly lowered them, making sure she didn’t harm what was growing inside,

“They are comfortable, I like them,”

“So do I,” Roxy praised,

Roxy wanted this moment to be right, for a long while Logan had Roxy’s heart and her soul, now she was going to give the man she adored her body, for the first time in over four years she was going to allow a man to have her, she wanted Logan, she ached for him, she was so very aroused. Roxy moved back onto the bed, Logan climbed on top of her, resting between her open thighs, their eyes locked, breathing heavy with expectation,

“I love you Kerr,” Roxy said with all her heart, her hands moving to the sides of his head and running her fingers through his hair,

“I love you too,” Logan replied before leaning forward and pushing his lips on hers, they kissed each other, considering how much they ached for each other the kiss was surprising tender, their lips parted as Logan repositioned himself slighting, Roxy’s month opened with a silent gasp, her eyes glowing brighter than ever as she looked into a pair of hazel eyes that glowed just as brightly, he took her there and then, and Roxy gave everything, letting their hearts go, passionately making love, throwing each other around the bed, they experimented, trying out different positions, Roxy found Kerr’s adventurousness an eye opening experience, he gave his all, spoilt her, his hands and lips savoured her body, bringing her to incredible heights of pleasure, finding areas of Roxy’s body that she hadn’t even known were sexually sensitive, he had so much energy it was almost overwhelming, much of what they done and the feelings that Roxy had felt was new to her, it was like losing her virginity all over again, in return Roxy gave everything, done anything that she was asked, finding new ways to please both Kerr and herself. Every so often Logan would suggest something and without hesitation Roxy would eagerly go along with it, Roxy’s willingness to try anything was a surprise for Logan who amazed at how Roxy looked, felt and tasted, they loved each other, held each other, caressed and squeezed, enjoying the feelings and emotions that their love making produced until with a gratifying climax they exhausted themselves on one another. Breathing heavily and layered in perspiration they snuggled up close, allowing their heart beats and breathing to return to normal, no words were spoken, all that was needed to be said had already been voiced, they became so relaxed that in each others arms they both fell into a warm and pleasant sleep. 

Morning rose over Zolaf Fours major city, Roxy was stood in front of her full length mirror, she was dressed in a white long sleeved blouse, a black cropped light weight sleeveless jacket and a pair of tight little black shorts, the look was finished off with a wide black leather belt worn tight around her waist and a pair of black leather under the knee boots. She looked at herself and smiled, she felt very good and she was happy with her appearance even though her shorts barely covered her backside. She turned to Logan who was dressed in a beige jacket, matching trousers and a white shirt, he looked very smart and he had even given his hair a brush.

“That’s a new look for you.” He said softly and approvingly,

“New feelings too, I am so very happy,” Roxy cooed as she stepped closer to the man she loved and without warning ran her hands through his hair, messing it up,

“Hey, I just brushed that,” Logan protested as he gently pushed Roxy’s hands away,

“You look better being a little scruffy, that is the look I fell in love with,” Roxy explained with a smile,

“Very well then,” Logan conceded as he took Roxy into his arms

“White shirt,” Roxy said with a smile,

“I love the white shirt,” she added,

“Someone told me you liked them,” Logan replied,

“You look beautiful, you are positively glowing,” he stated warmly,

“That is because of what you did to me last night, and what we done in the shower this morning, I must say that you have shown me a few new things that I’ve never done before,” Roxy said with pride,

“Back on Earth I had friends who would ask if I had gone primitive, I didn’t know what they meant, up until now love making was laying on my back thinking of the Federation, but wow, now I know what they meant, you were an animal and no one has made me feel like this before,” she added excitedly as she slid a hand around Logan’s hip, its journey ending at his backside which she squeezed, making Logan smile,

“I love your bum too,” she teased with a glowing smile,

“Although not as much as you love mine, going by what you did to me,” she said, squeezing him again,

“You enjoyed it though,” Logan stated warmly as he held her close,

“Damn right I did, you have made me a very happy woman, I’m happier than I have ever been, I have never known a man like you,” Roxy cooed as she cuddled her man, wanting to be as close to him as she could,

“Nor have I ever met a woman like you, you have made this man very happy too,” Logan said, kissing her on the top of her head,

“I did worry when I saw you cry,” Logan said softly,

“It wasn’t out of pain,” Roxy reassured him,

“My tears was because of all of those feelings I was experiencing, it was emotional, in a good way, I truly felt like a woman,” she added with a big smile,

“That’s good then,” Kerr Logan said with a loving warmth,

“Oh yes, outside of our brief intimate moments, especially that moment on the flight deck when you fondled my breasts, I have not felt particularly sexy or womanly, just a person fighting a war she didn’t want to be a part of,” the young blonde replied as she ran a hand down Logan’s big chest to his stomach, feeling his muscles react to her touch through his shirt,

“I was surprised that you allowed me to hold you like that on the flight deck.” Logan admitted softly,

“I was surprised too,” Roxy replied with a smirk as Logan moved one hand, placing it on the back of her neck and began stroking her gently, making Roxy smile, she had only just discovered that her neck was so sensitive, it was arousing, she tilted her head to one side and then the other and raised her shoulders,

“That’s not fair, stop that, you’re turning me on,” she squirmed as she placed her hand on his and moved it from her neck,

“Really?” Logan asked softly with a smile, feigning innocence,

“Yeah, really,” She replied with a knowing look, he knew exactly what he was doing,

“I’ve never known a man to be so frisky, you just don’t want to stop do you?” Roxy suggestively purred,

“What do you expect? It has been a while for me too and I’ve wanted this for sometime,” Logan replied, glowing,

“Sorry to have kept you waiting,” Roxy said with a hint of sadness,

“Don’t say that, if we hadn’t waited, would it have felt like this?” Logan asked,

“Would you have given so much? Would you have felt so at ease and relaxed?” He continued,

“Probably not, was I worth the wait?”

“Oh yes, definitely,” He replied brightly,

“You weren’t just frisky though, you are a very naughty man making me do many very naughty things,” Roxy teased,

“You didn’t complain,” Logan replied as he moved to kiss on her lips,

“Which makes you a very naughty girl,” he added huskily before planting his lips onto Roxy’s for a long and lingering kiss,

“I didn’t say I wasn’t, but you’ve awoken something from inside of me,” Roxy purred after their lips parted,

“And I am sure that we will be doing all those things again,” she added as she ran her hand back up Logan’s chest,

“Again?” Logan asked with a glowing smile,

“I enjoyed it all, I want to do things with you that I haven’t done before, I love you and I trust you, I loved being a primitive, I don’t ever want to go back to normal now,” Roxy said with a beautiful flush in her cheeks,

“There is just one thing that I am now concerned about,” she added with a smile,

“What would that be?” Logan sounded worried,

“Last night and this morning have been a wonderful experience, mind blowing, I fear that you may have set yourself a very high standard to keep to,” she replied warmly,

“It will be fun trying,” Logan answered before giving Roxy a tender kiss,

“Thank you,” he whispered,

“I should be thanking you, if it wasn’t for you telling Con—,“

Logan interrupted her,

“You cannot say his name,” Logan said firmly,

“What ever his name is, I would still be dead, I owe you more than you could ever know,” Roxy continued, giving Logan a serious look,

“You don’t have to, remember I was in that situation too and you were the one who got me through it, so let’s just call it evens shall we?” Logan suggested,

“Very well,” Roxy agreed as she turned to the mirror,

“Do you think that this is all right?” She asked Logan as she gestured to the clothes she wore,

“The shorts aren’t too short are they?” She enquired,

“I think that it suits you and as I have told you from the beginning you have a sexy little butt and great legs, why not show them off?” Logan replied with a smile as he held his woman from behind,

“Thank you,” Roxy said, eyes glowing, until she had met Logan, Roxy had never thought that her backside was that great and she had always saw her legs as being too short to be attractive, he had given her great inner confidence and it showed.

“I think that we better join the others, by what I heard when I went to get some clothes the ship is ready to fly, and as you said last night Ironside needs picking up,” Logan said informatively,

“Then we better go,” Roxy said cheerfully as she turned to face Logan,

“But not before you give me a big kiss,” she added before offering her lips to Logan who excepted her offer and pushed his lips against hers, kissing her tenderly and with all his heart. Roxy’s hands gently squeezed and caressed his big and strong chest as Logan’s hands stroked and caressed her firm buttocks, making her moan with pleasure. 

“I could really get used to this,” Roxy cooed after the long embrace,

“So could I,” Logan replied warmly, looking his woman right in the eye,

“You have lips I love kissing, I cannot help myself,” he added happily,

“I feel the same about your lips and I love your tongue too,” Roxy replied as she playfully bit her lower lip,

“I think that we better go, if we stay here too much longer I will want to go back to bed with you again, we would never leave this room,” she suggested,

“Damn,” Logan cursed with mock frustration.

He gently took Roxy’s hand in his as they walked to the door, Roxy smiled and as a question came to her mind,

“Kerr, could you answer a little question for me?”

“Sure, anything,”

The couple stopped by the door, looking into each others loving eyes, Roxy gently placed her palm on Kerr’s chest,

“What is it?” Logan asked,

“Are we still keeping our relationship a secret?” She asked seriously,

“I think it will be wise to, for the time being at least,” Logan replied softly,

“I don’t want to be accused of favouritism,” he added,

“But I am your favourite,” Roxy pressed teasingly,

“Of course, but they shouldn’t know that,” Logan said, referring to the crew, 

Roxy nodded and took a deep breath,

“With the way I am feeling, hiding how I feel about you is going to be hard,” she said with a warm smile,

“I know what you mean,” Logan nodded,

“Every time I look at you it is going to effect me, I have just managed to control how I feel before, but now things are different, I feel different, both physically and mentally, I’m truly in love with you,” Roxy said as she stoked his chest, watching her hand as she did so,

“I feel it here,” she added as she placed her hand over her heart,

Logan smiled and took the beautiful little blonde into his arms,

“It’s going to be hard for me too, I can’t stop thinking of last night, I’ve got all those great memories very clear in my mind and looking at you dressed like this is just going to make it harder for me not to want to kiss you, hold you, run my hands over you, you have my heart, I am madly in love with you too,” he confessed,

“Should I change then?” Roxy asked,

“Changing wont help because it’s you, who you are, the sound of your voice, the smell of your perfume, your eyes, your smile, the way you look through your hair when you’re embarrassed, the sexy wiggle your hips have when you walk, you could wear a rubbish sack and look amazing,” Logan said with a loving warmth,

“Thank you. You have my heart too,” Roxy said with a teasing grin,

“I have a sexy wiggle when I walk, good to know,” she added happily with a suggestive glow, 

“What?” Logan asked, seeing a wicked sparkle appear in her eyes,

“I have thought of a little pet name for you, I am your peach, you are my kinky little devil,” she said happily,

“Kinky little devil?” Logan asked with a wide grin,

“Yeah, with all those naughty things you made me do, you are a kinky little devil,” she said in a playful voice, 

“And speaking of peach, when we were on Domserrat you said that my bum was as mouth watering as a peach, hence my pet name. Now that you have tasted it, does my bum taste like a peach?” She asked with a childlike and mischievous grin,

“Better,” Logan said as he held Roxy tight against him and kissed her fully on her bright red lips, his hands returning to her small buttocks which brought a moan of pleasure from the young blonde.

Legacy Of Roj Blake

Chapter Twelve

The Last Dawn

Liza Ford and Lyle Ironside are still stranded on XK-98, they have drawn closer in the time that they have spent together as they await the arrival of their respective forces to pick them up.

Kerr Logan and the crew of the Arien are now waiting for Roxy Davis to return from saying her goodbyes to her family, she was hoping to see them again although not under the same circumstances.

Knowing the task that Confusers has set before them, Kerr Logan and Roxanne Davis are hoping to find a way to destroy the Terran Federation and win the war and save humanity…

Kerr Logan stood over the flight controls of the Arien, he had just finished preparing the ship for take off as he turned to Karla who was calibrating the weapons control board,

“Is everything all right over there?” Logan asked,

“Yes, the weapons system is fully functional and ready for use,” Karla replied as she rose out of her flight seat,

“How much longer are we supposed to wait?” She asked as she stood before Logan and crossed her arms,

“I was about to asked the same question,” Samantha stated as she placed her hands on her hips,

“I know that you are eager to pick up Ironside and so am I, but we have to wait for Roxy to return. We are not leaving a crew member on this planet so we can pick up another member of this crew from another planet, that would be foolish,” Logan replied firmly as he turned to Samantha,

“I am sure that you have no problem with that?” He asked, looking the Princess of Merrica Prime right in the eye,

“No, not really,” Samantha answered,

“Good,” Logan said as Danial marched into the flight deck,

“Everything is ready,” Danial said as he took his seat at the weapons control board, his eyes looking over the control board that Karla had recalibrated, she had done a good job with it,

“Slave, confirm ship status,” Logan ordered,

“THE ARIEN IS IN FULL OPERATING CONDITION MASTER, ALL SYSTEMS ARE RUNNING BETTER THAN THEY HAVE DONE FOR YEARS, I MUST CONGRATULATE YOU FOR YOUR MASTERFUL WORK,” Slave said in a grovelling tone,

“Right, now we go,” Danial said as he turned to Logan,

“Not until Roxy gets back,” Logan said as he was about to sit down,

“By the way, can we speak privately?” Karla asked Logan,

“Sure,” Logan replied with a curious frown,

Karla stepped out of the flight deck with Logan following close behind,

“You have the flight deck Sam,” he said as he disappeared out of the Arien’s control room,

“What’s all that about?” Danial asked,

“Not a clue,” Samantha King replied, her eyes looking at the entrance to the flight deck her crew mates had just departed through.

Logan and Karla stopped at the bottom or the entry ramp, the group leader put his hands on his hips as Karla turned to face him,

“You and Roxy need to be careful,”

“Excuse me? Logan asked, feigning innocence,

“You forget Logan, I am half Auron, not only am I a telepath, I’m an empath too,” Karla stated firmly,

“Since Roxy’s return, the feelings I’m getting from you too are off the scale,”

Logan took a deep breath,

“Given what I’m feeling I am surprised you two aren’t showing it,” the half Auron added, seeing a glow in Logan’s eyes,

“You have always known that something was going on between us,” Logan said quietly,

“Roxy told me of your conversation with her, telling her about the relationship you had with Blake,” he added,

“Back on Domserrat I felt something between you two but it was nothing like I’m feeling now, I would suggest you two proceed with care, I’m guessing the others do not know?” She asked,

“We’d like to keep it that way,”

Karla nodded, 

“I wont say a word, but given every time I have mentioned Roxy’s name your eyes light up I wont need too,” she said, noticing that glow in his eyes again,

“I know that Danial would not be happy to be kept in the dark over this,” she added,

“It’s nothing to do with him,” Logan snapped,

“It effects all of us, especially if what happened on Curth repeats itself,” Karla warned,

Logan looked away from Karla, he understood her warning,

“By the way, do these people know what you can do?” Karla enquired,

“What I can do?” Logan asked,

“Yes, your telepathy and telekinesis,” she stated,

“No, I haven’t used it around them, I’ve tried not too,” Logan answered as he turned to the dark haired woman,

“Given the reaction I got from you, Blake and Simpson on that occasion over Curth, I felt it was best to keep it in check,” he continued,

“It scares people when they see it,” he explained,

“Having seen what you can do, I can understand that,” Karla agreed, she remembered seeing Simpson in great pain as Logan used his telekinesis on their former companions heart, 

“I’m back,” Roxy announced as she entered the landing bay and saw her shipmates by the entry ramp,

Logan smiled, he cast his eyes over Roxy’s lovely form, he couldn’t believe that Roxy had the nerve to wear those little black shorts, but she showed a great inner confidence, she walked with her shoulders back and her head held high, she was radiant, truly beautiful, she glanced at him, smiled warmly as she gave Logan a quick and approving look over, Logan took a deep breath and said with a smile,

“Take your station on the flight deck, we’ll join you in a moment,”

“Okay,” Roxy replied, she was curious to know why they were outside the ship, but she followed Logan’s instructions, she would ask him about it later,

“Wow! If there was any other empath here they would have felt the most intensely loving feeling that any two people could feel,” Karla said with a smirk, what she was feeling was taking her breath away, with all of the stress, pain and fear she was used to feeling, this was extremely different, and in some ways appreciated,

“I feel a very strong mutual feeling between you two,” she added,

“Come on, you’ve seen her, how can I not?” Logan asked, pointing at his chest,

“I know, I must admit she has changed a hell of a lot from that frighten little girl we first meet on Gauda Prime,” Karla pointed out,

“I was once an Elite Forces trainer in the Federation, I have trained Roxy to the same standard, her application and determination puts many Federation soldiers to shame,” Logan said with a warm smile and a sense of pride,

“Danial was telling me how surprised he was when you rescued her on Wanta, she didn’t panic, she grabbed a gun and fired back when escaping,”

“That is true,” Logan confirmed,

“Speaking of your Elite training, I met someone on Perporta who you trained,”

“Who?” Logan asked, his head tilting to one side curiously,

“A pilot named Darla Daney,”

“Darla? Now there is a name from the past,” Logan was surprised,

“She is Avalon’s chosen pilot for dangerous operations, she was assigned to Blake for a secret mission,”

“So she defected? That must be an embarrassment to her family,” Logan said with a smirk,

“Her family?” Karla enquired,

“The Daney’s, the largest and most wealthy family in the Federation, they have so much money they are the Federation’s largest financial contributors,” he replied,

“That rich?” Karla as shocked,

“Yeah, Lord Cral Daney is a powerful influence in the Administration, he has four sons and five daughters, all were D.N.A spliced shortly after they were conceived to make them all have blonde hair and blue eyes,”

“Darla wasn’t a blue eyed blonde, she had brown eyes and brunette hair?” Karla interrupted,

“True, when she was conceived, her mother wanted a daughter who looked like her, so she didn’t tell Cral about the conception until it was too late, I believe Cral said to Darla when she was young, you are a member of this family but you are not my daughter,” Logan explained as she gestured to the top of the entry ramp,

“That’s terrible,” Karla gasped as she followed Logan up the entry ramp,

“Cral isn’t a nice man, so Darla has been rebelling against him ever since, in the Daney’s, the girls go into administration whilst the boys join the armed forces, Darla joined the Iron Guard, her brothers attempted join the Federations Elite Forces, they thought they could make it on their name only, but I was their instructor and I didn’t care about their name, so they all failed, Darla was different, all her life she had been fighting against her family, so she came to the Elite Forces determined to better her brothers, to show everyone she was good enough, and she passed, she was the most gifted pilot I have ever met, I’m glad she is on our side now,” Logan said with a smile as his hand touched the landing ramp control,

The ramp raised as Karla turned to him,

“Darla told me that she saw Roxy on Saint Portia Major and said hello to her,”

“That would explain it, Roxy said some woman told her that she shouldn’t have been there either,” Logan said, finally understanding what Roxy had told him,

Logan nodded, the two rebels entered the flight deck, Logan walked to the flight controls, he saw Danial who was sat at the weapons control, Samantha was sat at the communications bank and Roxy was sat at the ship systems control, they briefly looked at each other and smiled, Karla sat at the detector controls, she didn’t need to see that Logan and Roxy had looked at each other, she could feel it, Logan turned to Samantha,

“Let Zolaf Four security know that we are taking off,”

Samantha relayed Logan’s message as Logan began the launch cycle,

“Stand by,” Logan announced,

“Zolaf Four have given us the all clear,” Samantha said before fastening her safety harness,

“Good, let’s leave this place,” Karla said as Logan took the Arien up into the sky.

Another night had fallen and another attack had been countered, Liza stood with her sabre in both hands looking down on the seven foot tall scaled biped that she had just killed, along with the three others that lay on the ground near her, she was breathing heavily, she ached but she knew that she had to stay on her toes, Ironside wasn’t cut out to do this kind of thing on his own. Liza turned to Ironside who had been keeping look out as Liza had fought with these animals, he had stayed calm enough to help her beat this attack, letting her know when another creature had appeared so Liza could deal with it,

“You and I are a good team,” Liza said with a smile,

“Yes, I would say that too,” Ironside said as he stepped out of hiding and walked across the small battle field to the Supreme Commander, looking in all directions making sure that no creature was ready to jump them in a counter attack,

“We did it again, this is becoming too easy,” Liza said as she closed down her sabre and hooked it to her belt,

“Well done,” Ironside said with a smile,

“And to you,” Liza replied, reflecting Ironside’s smile with her own.

From behind came a loud roar as bright flares of light reached into the heavens and lit up the sky,

“What the hell are they?” Liza asked as she watched the beautiful light show,

“I think that those flares are the way these creatures can leave the planet,” Ironside said as he kicked one of the four corpses that littered the ground,

“What makes you say that?” Liza asked, she always found him interesting when he was spilling out theories of one thing or another, she had noticed that most of the time he was correct,

“As I have said before, Logan confronted one of these creatures when he was still on Domserrat, if I remember rightly he said that the only thing that happened before the creature appeared was when two meteorites hit the ground not too far away from his base,” Ironside explained,

Liza smiled, she found his intelligence so appealing she felt at last that she had truly met her equal, true Logan was as intelligent as she was but something told her that Ironside was even more so, maybe he had a higher I.Q than she had and that was an exciting prospect,

“What don’t you know?” Liza asked warmly,

Ironside smirked, he walked towards Liza and took her into his arms,

“What you are feeling right now,” he said softly,

“You want to find that out do you?” Liza asked suggestively,

“Oh yes,” Ironside replied, pulling her closer,

“Why not?” Liza said smiling.

As their lips were about to touch, Samantha King’s voice crackled through Ironside’s teleport pin,

“Can you hear me, this is Samantha, Ironside can you hear me?”

“Damn,” Liza cursed as Ironside went to answer Samantha’s call,

“I have to,” Ironside said reluctantly before pressing down hard on his silver teleport

pin,

“This is Ironside. Where the hell have you been?”

“Sorry about that Ironside, we had to leave in a bit of a hurry, the ship was badly damaged. How are you doing?” Samantha said cheerfully,

“I am fine, when will you be in teleport range?” Ironside asked, looking Liza right in the eye,

“Logan thinks that we will be in teleport range in five minutes,” Samantha responded,

“Okay I’ll get myself ready, Ironside out,”

Ironside took a step closer to Liza, he gently took her by her waist,

“I’m sorry, I have to go back to them,”

“I know and I understand,” Liza said sombrely,

“I just wish that you could join me,” she said sadly,

“I wish that I could but the Federation stands for everything that I detest. I could never work for an organisation that understands nothing but fighting, killing and ruling with an iron fist, I would never be happy with myself if I did,” Ironside said warmly, looking into Liza’s beautiful blue eyes,

“I’m going to miss you,” Liza said as tears began to fall from her eyes,

“I am going to miss you too,” Ironside said, meaning every word,

“I have fallen in love with you Lyle,”

“As I have with you,”

They held each other, knowing that they only had a few minutes left together and also knowing that this might be the last time they will ever be together.

Roxy stood by Logan’s side as Slave brought the Arien into an orbit over the planet XK--98, the other members of the crew had gone to the teleport room, standing by to bring Ironside back to the ship.

“How did your mother take my request for them to leave Zolaf Four?” Logan asked as he turned away from the forward view screen and looked into Roxy’s bright green eyes,

“She found it strange to say the least, I mean it isn’t every day you are told to leave a planet without having a good reason,” Roxy replied softly,

“You know why we couldn’t give them a good reason,”

“I do but my mother doesn’t, however she said that she would leave Zolaf Four before the four years are up,” Roxy stated as she lent on the flight controls.

Logan smiled, he slipped his right hand onto the small of her back and then slowly slid his hand down to her buttocks, Roxy smiled happily as his hand cupped her gently and just as he was about to kiss her the Slave announced,

“MASTER, WE’RE NOW IN TELEPORT RANGE OF THE PLANET XK—98,”

“Thank you Slave,” Roxy sighed as Logan pulled away from the attempted embrace and hit the intercom button,

“Danial, we are now in teleport range, let Ironside know that we are about to bring him up,” Logan ordered firmly,

“Certainly,” Danial replied,

Logan returned his eyes to Roxy who had stepped closer to Logan and began to caress his chest, he smiled warmly, his hands running gently up and down her sides,

“Now, where were we?” He asked, his hands gently squeezing her,

“I think that you was just about to kiss me,” Roxy said with a glowing smile, loving the sensations of having his big hands on her body, she in turn massaged his strong chest, Roxy’s heart was racing, she wanted him, ever since their first night together she hadn’t been able to keep her hands off of Kerr’s body or his hands from hers, it was becoming harder to hide their feelings for each other from the rest of the crew, they wanted so badly to let the others know but at the moment they knew that it would not be prudent,

“That’s right, I was,” Logan said, his heart pounding excitedly as he prepared to kiss Roxy again,

“MASTER, I WOULD HATE TO INTERUPT YOU BUT LONG RANGE DETECTORS INDICATE A MASS OF STARSHIPS APPROACHING,” Slave suddenly announced,

Logan and Roxy suddenly turned to the computer,

“Identify them Slave,” Roxy ordered, she was suddenly concerned,

“THE SHIPS REGISTER AS FEDERATION MASTER, THERE ARE A TOTAL OF TWENTY FIVE VESSELS,” Slave replied,

Logan hit the intercom button,

“Is Ironside onboard yet?”

“Yes I am,” Ironside replied,

“Good, Slave set an evasion course and get us out of here,” Roxy ordered as she rushed to her flight controls and jumped into her seat,

“Maximum speed,” Logan added to Roxy’s command,

“AT ONCE MASTER,” Slave obeyed,

“Everybody to the flight deck, battle stations,” Logan shouted into the intercom.

Liza Ford stood still, Lyle Ironside had just been teleported back to the Arien, she had a heavy heart, she had never expected that she would fall so heavily for any man, what made her feel worse was the fact that the man she had fallen for was a rebel, it was very unlikely that she would ever have the chance to be alone with him again, she sat down on the grass verge overlooking a herd of giant insects that grazed on the land, she watched them, trying hard to find the level of interest in them as Ironside had shown but she couldn’t, to her they were nothing but brainless animals that lived very simple lives. Liza looked up into the blue but clouding sky, she was missing Ironside already. One of the biggest attractions about Ironside was his intelligence, Liza had read his file in depth, Ironside left school at sixteen years of age, enrolling for medical college and being accepted on his first attempt, after two years training he became one of the most admired doctors in the profession, having a surgery success rate of eighty nine percent, he left surgery to find a more challenging role within the scientific community, he soon rose up the ranks becoming a success again as he found new chemicals that had never been seen or known of before, creating new concoctions that solved and cured disease’s, many of them fatal, but once he discovered that some of his new chemicals where being used for killing or harming people Ironside defected and joined the rebellion, on that day the Federation had lost one of its brightest jewels, Liza knew how that must have felt. One other thing that Liza had liked about him was that he understood some of the complexities of electronic engineering, he had staggered her with his knowledge and brainpower and Liza found that very attractive.

“Supreme Commander Ford this is Space Commander Drayson, can you hear me?”

Liza cleared her mind of Ironside and turned her attention to the communicator that Ironside had built, she picked it up and pressed the COM button,

“I hear you,” she answered flatly,

“Keep your com channel open, we will use it as a landing beacon,” Drayson said firmly,

“Shall do, just get here quickly Drayson I want off of this planet,” Liza snapped before dropping the communicator by her side.

Liza looked at the communicator, she wondered if she should keep hold of it as a reminder of her time with Ironside, she took a sorry breath, she would never have him whilst she was still a serving officer of the Federation, at this moment she was sure that she would do anything to have him back. There was a wining sound in the air above where Liza was sat, she looked up to see a large shuttle craft descending from the heavens, Liza rose to her feet and began to step away from the ledge so that she wouldn’t be thrown over it when the shuttle landed, it wasn’t long until the shuttles landing gear had hit the ground and the landing ramp began to lower, Miles Drayson and two armed guards stepped out of the shuttle and walked over to Liza as she made her way closer to the shuttle craft,

“It is so good to see you Supreme Commander, when one of your wing men limped back to Space Command informing us of your recent battle with the Arien we thought that we had lost you,” Drayson was saying as he was joined by Liza Ford,

“Then why the hell didn’t you send out a small force to investigate my apparent loss?” Liza snapped angrily,

“But Supreme Commander, I would have done if President Nixon hadn’t told me to stay and organise security for the coming meetings,” Drayson protested as he pointed to himself,

Liza gave him a hard glare,

“You are a military officer, you work with my best interests in mind not the Presidents do I make myself clear?” She questioned before turning to the landing ramp,

“But how can I say no to President Nixon?” Drayson asked as he followed Liza into the shuttlecraft,

“By saying no,” Liza shouted as she turned to Drayson and placed her hands on her hips,

“Have you ever refused Nixon?” Drayson asked,

“Many times and I’ll yell at him when I get back to Space Command, he may be the President but I’m the Supreme Commander, I run the Federation. Now where is my replacement uniform?” Liza shouted at Drayson,

“I have that in the storage compartment in the main hold,” Drayson replied, trying to sound calm even though he was shaking in his boots, he had known that Liza had a strong temper but until now he had never been on the sharp end of it. 

Logan and his crew watched the main screen as the Federation fleet entered orbit over XK—98, sent down a landing craft, waited in orbit until the landing craft returned, once the landing craft had docked with the command ship the fleet jumped into time distort. Logan frowned and turned to Danial,

“What the hell was that all about?” He asked,

“I have no idea,” Danial said as he stepped nearer to the screen,

“Slave, did you at any moment detect scanning beams?” He asked the computer,

“NEGITIVE SIR, NO SCANNING BEAMS WERE DIRECTED AT THE ARIEN,” Slave responded,

Danial turned to Logan and shrugged his shoulders,

“What were they there for?” He asked,

“Ironside, you didn’t send out a call for help while you were down there?” Roxy asked curiously,

“No, why?” Ironside asked, who had been watching the screen with the same interest as everyone else, he sounded a little edgy,

“You sound unsure of yourself?” Logan asked, sensing that Ironside wasn’t being completely honest with him,

“I’m just tired, that’s all,” Ironside said with a sigh,

“Right,” Logan said, sounding uncertain, all the while Karla was probing

Ironside with her mental sensory gift,

“He’s not being honest with us Logan, he is hiding something,” she said as she turned her attention to the groups leader,

“Really?” Logan asked as he crossed his arms,

“Shut it Karla, nothing happened,” Ironside protested, feeling angry that Karla would probe him without telling him first,

“Why shout when you have nothing to hide?” Samantha asked as she stepped behind Ironside,

Ironside turned, looking Samantha right in the eye,

“You know me Sam, would I lie to you?”

“I would have thought that you wouldn’t do, but my gut is telling me that something is up, something happened on that planet that you are not willing to tell us about,” Princess Samantha said as she gestured to the screen,

“Look, I came across some very nasty creatures when I was stuck on that planet,” Ironside snapped as he turned to Logan,

“I think that I have found the home planet where that creature that you fought back on Domserrat, there were hordes of the things, I’m lucky to still be alive,” he told Logan defensively,

Logan seemed surprised, it had been a long time since he had thought of the creature that had killed two of his old smuggling friends back on his old base, he turned to Roxy who wore that same surprised expression before turning back to Ironside,

“Really, how did you survive then with only a side arm to protect yourself? Those things are impervious to gunfire, Karla, Roxy and I know what one of them things can do but a whole planet full of them, you would never of survived, I know that and so do you, so who was on that planet that helped you?” Logan questioned,

“If someone was helping him they would have to have one hell of a sharp weapon like my sabre,” Roxy pointed out as she stepped closer to the former Federation scientist,

“There is only one person I know that would justify having a battle fleet come running to the rescue and also someone who would own the weapon that could kill those creatures and have the skill to use it,” Logan said probingly as he sat down at his flight controls, looking at Roxy all the while,

Roxy looked back at him before it sank in whom Logan was talking about, she turned to Ironside with an angry glare,

“Liza Ford,” she snapped,

Ironside remained still, he swallowed deeply as he looked at each and every member of the Arien’s crew, all were giving him accusing stares,

“Well, was it?” Samantha snapped as she shoved Ironside in the back,

Ironside angrily turned to her, his eyes flashed with rage,

“Yes it was,”

Everyone was silent as Ironside and Samantha eyeballed each other,

“Why defend her Ironside?” Danial asked,

“What does that matter?” Ironside countered,

“I matters a hell of a lot,” Danial answered,

“You didn’t?” Roxy asked, walking to him as it became clear to her what had happened on the planet,

“Didn’t what?” Karla asked, watching as the blonde woman stepped beside

Samantha a took hold of Ironside’s shirt collar,

“You and her, alone on a strange planet together, fighting the odd creature, fighting to survive, relying on each other, falling for each other,” Roxy said with angered venom as she looked him right in the eye,

“I don’t bear a grudge against her like the rest of you,” Ironside said in his defence,

“You did it with her didn’t you?” Roxy questioned,

“Does it concern you if I did or not?” Ironside retorted,

As Ironside waited for Roxy’s answer Logan slowly rose out of his flight seat, a question nagged at the back of his mind,

“It does,” Roxy snapped,

“What was Liza Ford doing there?”

Ironside turned to him, thankful that it wasn’t another question about whether or not he had slept with the Federation’s Supreme Commander,

“She was coming back from Earth after seeing her parents, she had been summoned for some big meeting with Space Command and the High Council, it would appear that you shot her down after her pursuit ship had experienced power failure, she crash landed on the planet, she had been badly injured,” he explained,

“I wish she died when she crashed,” Roxy said bitterly,

“We can all wish that,” Karla said in agreement as a wide rueful smile crossed her lips,

Ironside ignored their bitter comments,

“A meeting with Space Command and the High Council?” Logan asked, wanting to hear Ironside confirm what he had just said, knowing that if Space Command and the High Council, the two major power bases of the Terran Federation were in the same place, now was the time to mount an attack as without its command structure the Federation could possibly fall, Logan knew that these mass meetings rarely happened, if ever,

“That is right, why?” Ironside confirmed,

Danial Carson and Roxy Davis both turned to Logan as he smiled,

“You cannot be thinking what I think that you are thinking?” Danial asked, fearing that Logan would want to mount an attack,

Kerr Logan’s smile widened as he turned to Orac,

“Orac, where is this meeting taking place?”

“I AM VERY BUSY AT THE MOMENT LOGAN, WITH MY NEWLY ENHANCED CAPABILITIES I HAVE BEEN WORKING ON THE FORMATION OF THE UNIVERSE, I AM VERY CLOSE TO COMPLETING THE FIRST PART MY PROJECT SO DO NOT DISTRACT ME,” Orac protested as the rest of the crew looked at Logan with disbelief,

“You will lose those new abilities Orac if you do not answer my question,” Logan warned the computer,

“VERY WELL, I WILL ASSIST YOU OUT OF PROTEST,”

“You can do it what ever way you want Orac, just do it,” Logan commanded,

“YOU WILL FIND THAT THE HIGH LEVEL MEETINGS ARE HAPPENING ONBOARD SPACE COMMAND HEADQUARTERS, WHICH IS CURRENTLY IN ORBIT OVER THE ASTRAL PLANET REFERED TO AS XK—54,” Orac replied,

Logan smiled at his worried looking crewmates,

“You have to be joking? That place will be covered in security, we wouldn’t be able to get close to them without them shooting us down,” Karla said, voicing the concern of the rest of the crew,

“No Karla, I am not joking,” Logan replied firmly,

“Surely you don’t think that we could destroy Space Command Headquarters in this crate?” Danial asked with wide eyes,

“It is not a case of _thinking_ that we can, I _know_ that we can,” Logan stated, sounding very confident, a confidence that his crew did not share,

“Look, we have been hitting the Federation when we can, striking at the limbs, a communications base here, a supply ship there but never really hurting the Federation now we have a chance not only to hurt them but a damn good chance to finally destroy them, without the command structure of the Federation _they will fall,"_ Logan said between clenched teeth and making fists,

“I admire your confidence with us Logan but us attacking Space Command, that is one thing that I know we cannot do,” Samantha said, trying to reason with the groups leader,

“I know that we have had our differences in the past, that there have been some moments when we have doubted what we were doing but deep down I know that you all would like to see the Federation fall, I would like to see the Federation fall, now we have that chance, a chance to finally do what we have wanted to do in years, I think that we should take it, we may never get another chance and I know one thing, given the choice I would sooner do it now and with you lot by my side then waiting and fight beside anyone else,” Logan said calmly as he looked at each crew member in turn as they looked at him, there was a strong feeling of anticipation on the flight deck as Logan waited for what his crew would say next,

“Why not?” Roxy said after a long and tense silence, she understood Logan’s urge to destroy the Federation more than anyone,

Samantha nodded as she turned to Danial,

“Yeah why not, what have we got to lose?” She said with a smile,

“Why do I think that doing this insane thing is the right thing to do?” Danial asked Logan as Karla rose to her feet,

“I think that that is a certified yes,” she added to the debate,

“Certified something,” Danial said with a smirk,

For the first time since the crew had been together, they were in total agreement, although Ironside showed no signs of liking what his crew mates were hoping to do he knew that there was no way he could change their minds, reluctantly, knowing that it didn’t really matter anyway Ironside agreed with his crew mates. Logan turned to Orac,

“Orac, I want a fully detailed report of Federation security arrangements for these meetings and that means everything, from the Federation battle fleets to the man sitting on the reception desk at the command offices, the security robots to the office cleaners,”

“SUCH INFORMATION WILL TAKE TIME LOGAN, HOWEVER I WILL HAVE THAT INFORMATION READY FOR YOU WITHIN THE NEXT SEVEN HOURS,” Orac reported,

“Seven hours, we might as well take this time to rest,” Danial suggested,

“I agree,” Karla said, nodding her head,

“Very well then. Slave keep all detectors at maximum range and on constant survey, notify us if anything, and I mean anything comes into range,” Logan commanded,

“YES MASTER,” Slave obeyed dryly,

The crew began to leave the flight deck leaving Logan and Roxy alone, the blonde woman walked to Logan’s side and placed a hand on the small of his back, she curiously asked,,

“So you think that this is that time?”

Kerr Logan turned to her as Roxy sat on the edge of a flight console, he slowly walked to her, he scanned the flight deck to see that everyone had gone,

“I’m certain of it,” He replied as he checked Roxy out as he came to a stop in front of her, Roxy noticed his wandering eyes, smiling as his eyes looked down the v-neck of her blouse, it made her very happy, she choose her outfit for Logan, the tight little shorts and boots to show off her legs and bum and the v-neck blouse to display her cleavage, all worn to enhance her figure and attract Kerr’s eyes and hands,

“You can have them you know,” Roxy said suggestively, her cheeks were flushed,

“Excuse me?” Logan asked as he finally looked into Roxy’s glowing eyes,

“What you were having a good look at, you can have them,” she said warmly,

Logan took a deep breath as he stepped closer to the young blonde, placing his hands on her hips,

“For a self confessed leg and bum man, you seem to love my breasts,” Roxy said huskily,

“How could I not? They are a part of you, and you are the worlds most beautiful woman, you take my breath away,” Logan confessed, 

Logan lent forward and offered his lips to Roxy, she smiled before craning her neck to kiss him, after a tender embrace Roxy stroked Kerr’s chest as she pulled away,

“Let’s go to my cabin,” she breathed deeply,

“What’s wrong with my cabin?” Logan asked softly,

“We could go to your cabin, but my cabin is further away from our crewmates cabins, you know how loud I get when we’re making love,”

Roxy looked lustfully into Kerr’s sparkling eyes as she teasingly began to undo the buttons of her white blouse,

“Your cabin it is,” Logan said with a deep breath, finding it impossible not to stare at his woman’s body, Roxy smiled and took Logan’s hand before leading him out of the flight deck, looking over her shoulder suggestively,

Liza Ford strode out of her shuttle with Drayson close behind, Liza was wearing her new tight fitting uniform, one that was styled on her old white uniform but was crimson in colour with gold trim, the uniform was completed by her shinny black leather boots and gun belt that had a pair of black leather gloves tucked into it, she stopped when she saw President Nixon standing by the main entrance, he looked smartly dressed in a light grey three piece suit and well polished black shoes, Liza took a deep breath as she marched over to him,

“You and me in my office right now,” she commanded angrily as she barged passed Nixon and continued on to the command section.

Nixon turned and stormed after her, he didn’t appreciate being spoken to in that manner,

“Supreme Commander Ford, stop where you are,” Nixon shouted,

Liza stopped and turned on her heel, she glared into the President’s eyes as he approached,

“Don’t ever speak to me like that in front of lower ranked officers,” Nixon firmly stated as he gestured to Drayson, other junior officers began to slowly move away from the exchange, feeling awkward as the two of the most powerful figures in the Federation clashed,

“I will speak to you as I see fit Nixon,” Liza raged,

“I have been told that you insisted on Space Commander Drayson staying here to arrange security for you and your precious meetings when I was stranded on some back water planet,” she stormed,

“Security for these meetings is vital Supreme Commander, I’m surprised to know that you think differently,” Nixon countered,

“I run the Federation,” Liza pointed out,

“I control the military, not you, that is why I am the Supreme Commander, that is my job. When my safety is compromised it is to be secured by the military and Space Commander Drayson is military,” she continued,

“I am the President, the High Admiral Of The Six Armies, I control the Federation,” Nixon corrected her,

“No Nixon, you control the civil sectors, running the political side of the Federation and the Administration, not the military, that kind of control was annexed by President Elect Proctor nine years ago. A President cannot control the military, that is the job of the Supreme Commander, I am the Supreme Commander, I run the Federation military, so with that in mind you had no right to force Drayson to stay here when his Supreme Commander was in danger,” Liza countered as she pointed an accusing finger at the President,

“Now, I have to check out the security arrangements, so join your other political bureaucrats and talk shop, I’m busy,” Liza snapped before storming off,

“What the hell has got to her?” Nixon asked Drayson,

“I have no idea sir, she has been like that since we picked her up, I guess that she isn’t feeling too well,” Drayson said after getting over the shock of seeing his Supreme Commander and the President shouting at each other,

“What makes you say that?” Nixon asked,

“During the flight back, she has been sick over the last few mornings Sir,”

Drayson answered,

“Then she is to see a doctor about it,” Nixon said firmly,

“I’ll make sure of that,” he added before leaving Drayson standing in the landing bay. 

Samantha King walked into the flight deck, she was dressed in a one piece crimson and cream coloured outfit, no one else was present, she walked to Orac that buzzed contentedly to itself, Samantha took hold of the computers sides and asked,

“Have you got the information that Logan asked you to get?”

“I HAVE, I WILL PROJECT IT UPON THE MAIN SCREEN,” Orac replied before activating the forward monitor,

Samantha turned to face the screen, on display was Federation Space Command which was marked out in red, surrounding it, joined by lines that indicated flight paths were other smaller red markings that were indicating pursuit ships and battle fleets, altogether it was a formidable display of military might, Samantha could see that it would be impossible for the Arien to fly directly at the station, as all flight paths caused the pursuit ship detectors to overlap,

“I don’t see anyway that we could reach the station,” Samantha said to herself as Logan walked in, wearing a black and light grey two piece outfit with a dark grey sweater worn under his jacket,

“What is the matter?” He asked as he joined Samantha’s side,

“That is the matter,” Samantha replied as she pointed at the screen,

Logan surveyed the monitor, even he could see that going anywhere near the station was hopeless,

“Whoever organised security did a good job,” he admitted,

“But there has to be a way,” Logan added as he stepped closer to the screen,

“There is always a way,” Danial said, who was standing by the entrance to the flight deck wearing a beige and brown jump suit,

Logan and Samantha turned to him,

“Show us,” Samantha demanded,

Danial smiled as he walked to the screen, he stood for a moment, studying the data and his smile widened as a solution presented itself,

“There, on the edge of the screen, on a course to dock with the station,” he said as he pointed to a dot on the extreme range of the screen,

“What is it?” Logan asked as he studied the dot,

“Orac, confirm that the starship in grid reference two twelve is a robot supply ship,” Danial commanded,

“THAT IS CONFIRMED DANIAL,” Orac reported,

Danial turned to Logan and smiled,

“That is the only way we can get onboard the station, the only way that we can destroy it. Your original idea of a shock attack using the Arien will not work Logan, this ship does not have that kind of power and speed, only by boarding Space Command and planting explosives in delicate areas of the station can we destroy it,” 

“I’d go along with that,” Logan agreed,

“But would we be able to stay onboard a robot ship?” Samantha asked as Ironside walked into the flight deck dressed in a pair of dark blue trousers and a black shirt,

“That’s a point, robot ships do not have life support systems,” Logan pointed out,

“Some do, some don’t, let us find out,” Danial said as he turned to Orac,

“Does the robot ship have a working life support system?”

“THE ROBOT SHIP IS AN OLD CLASS T-16 INTERSTELLER CARGO VESSEL, FORMERLY LISTED AS BEING THE PRISON SHIP LONDON, THE LIFE SUPPORT SYSTEMS ARE STILL INTACT AND CAN BE ACTIVATED,” Orac responded as Ironside joined his crew mates around the computer,

“Any success yet?” He asked flatly, not really interested in the attack,

“I think so,” Logan said as he turned to the Slave computer,

“Slave, set course to rendezvous with the robot ship on grid reference two twelve at a speed of time distort seven. Give me our E.T.A,” he commanded,

“AT ONCE MASTER, ESTIMATED TIME OF ARRIVAL IS THREE HOURS AND TWENTY TWO MINUTES, I HOPE THAT IS SATISFACTORY MASTER?” Slave stated,

“When will the robot ship dock with Space Command?” Samantha asked curiously,

“IT WILL DOCK WITH SPACE COMMAND IN FIVE HOURS THIRTY FIVE MINUTES MADAM, I HOPE I DID NOT SPEAK OUT OF TURN MADAM,” Slave replied with an apologetic tone,

“Thank you Slave,” Samantha said with a shake of the head,

“I wish that we could give that computer a personality,” she said with a smile,

“Slave with a personality, how horrid,” Logan said with a sarcastic smile before turning to Danial,

“Now we plan what we are going to do once we are onboard Space Command,” he stated firmly before Danial turned to Orac,

“Orac, give us the schematics of Federation Space Command station Alpha One,” Danial commanded,

“VERY WELL,” Orac replied as the image on the screen changed to a three dimensional image of Space Command,

“It’s a big place,” Roxy said as she walked into the flight deck and joined

Logan’s side, gently brushing her hand on the back of his thigh in the

process, Logan smiled, he turned to Roxy who was dressed in a very tight fitting plain black cat-suit and her black sleeveless jacket, Logan sighed softly, she was a very beautiful young woman,

“Have you not been onboard this type of station?” Logan asked Danial,

Logan had spent many occasions on Alpha One, serving as a captain in the elite forces gave him high level access,

“It is like a maze, if we are to go onboard we must memorise every detail of every deck,” Danial stated informatively, he had served onboard too,

“Which means that we will have to print out a copy of the plans of Space Command for everyone so that we know exactly where everything is,” Logan said as, unseen by the other members of his crew, he ran his hand up and down the small of Roxy’s back bringing a smile to her lips,

“Agreed,” Samantha said with a nod of her head,

“I’d go along with that,” Roxy said as she studied the plans,

“The vulnerable areas of Space Command are the engineering sections and computer control, those areas will have a better chance of causing the station to explode if we set the explosives right,” Danial said informatively,

“If we do that part right, yes the station will go up but how do we get off of the station once the explosives are set?” Karla asked, who was standing in the same place as Danial had been when he first entered the flight deck,

“That is the difficult bit,” Logan said as he turned to the half Auron woman who was dressed in her old green rebel battle fatigues,

“Isn’t getting onboard the station, finding main engineering and computer control and then setting the explosives correctly whilst not getting caught or killed the difficult bit?” Ironside asked curiously,

“No, that part is easy, having the Arien do an attack run on the station and having us teleported off of the station at the same time is the difficult part,” Danial stated calmly,

“So how do we do that then?” Roxy asked,

“Ironside will be staying on the Arien, once we have boarded the robot ship you will take the Arien to a safe distance, where you will wait,” Logan said informatively as he turned to Ironside,

“Once we have set the explosives, we will send out a signal that only Orac can read, that will be your signal to come and get us, Orac will control the teleport as you approach,” he added,

“During the attack run you must avoid every Federation attempt to shoot you down, remember we only have one shot at this, so don’t mess it up,” Danial said sternly,

“You can trust me Danial,” Ironside said with a smile,

“I can never trust someone who fraternises with the enemy,” Danial snapped,

“Let us put that behind us shall we? We have a bigger concern to think about,” Logan said firmly as he looked at the two men of his crew in turn, 

“Certainly,” Ironside agreed,

“For now anyway,” Danial said sharply as he glared at Ironside with an accusing eye,

“Good, now let us get this plan sorted out, as you said Danial we have only one chance at this so we must get it right,” Logan said commandingly as his crew looked on.

Liza Ford was sat in her office, she was going over Drayson’s security arrangements as the Space Commander was sat opposite her, waiting to see what her response would be, Liza looked up from his report and sat back, she let out a sigh before speaking,

“You seem to have thought of everything,”

“I like to think that I can,” Miles Drayson replied confidently,

“There is just one thing that I would add to this, just as a additional security matter,” Liza told her Space Commander,

“What would that be?” Drayson asked curiously, thinking that he had covered everything,

“I would send out a battle fleet to the boarder of sector one, just to make sure that the flight path is clear for when the meetings are over and it is time for High Command and the High Council return to Earth,” Liza explained calmly,

“I see your point Supreme Commander, I’ll arrange it,” Drayson agreed after looking over his arrangements again,

“I do not want you to arrange it Drayson, I would like you to take the Galactic Eighth Fleet and head to sector one personally,” Liza ordered,

“Me, Supreme Commander?” Drayson questioned,

“It would give me peace of mind if it was you commanding the fleet, I know that you will do a great job Space Commander,” Liza said with a smile,

“So you are not trying to get rid of me then?” Drayson joked,

“No, why would I do that? There are not many officers in the Federation I can trust, you are one of the few that I do,” Liza told Drayson as she looked him right in the eye,

“Then I’ll be honoured Supreme Commander,”

“Good, then you leave now,” Liza commanded,

“At once Supreme Commander,” Drayson said before rising from his chair and leaving the office.

Liza Ford let out a soft sigh, she covered her forehead with a hand, she was feeling nauseous, she hadn’t been feeling too good since leaving planet XK—98, she swallowed deeply and took a deep breath before rising to her feet, Liza looked out of her window, she saw the mass of battle ships, a smile came to her lips, Liza had never seen so many warships in the same place before, she was sure that half of the Federation navy was within this one star system, she turned back to her office as the door chime sounded,

“Enter,” Liza called out,

The door opened and Space Commander Cory Williams walked in with her usual calm but dignified manner, Liza gestured to the chair that Drayson had just vacated as she retook her chair,

“How can I help you Cory?” Liza asked,

“It was something that one of our watch stations picked up, a quick detector trace that disappeared as quickly as it appeared, out on the boarder of sector three,” Cory reported as she made herself comfortable in the chair,

“What kind of trace?” Liza questioned, sounding concerned,

“Unknown, we were not able to identify it,” Cory replied formerly,

Liza looked towards her window again, for a moment she was quiet,

“Supreme Commander?” Cory asked, she had heard about Liza’s outburst when she had arrived on the station, it was unlike Liza to show such a level of un-professionalism as to yell at a superior within ear shot of lower ranked officers, the argument between Liza and Nixon was common knowledge with everyone onboard Space Command, Cory was concerned for her friend and superior officer,

“I would like you to take a pursuit ship patrol and investigate this trace,” Liza ordered calmly as she turned to Cory,

“Yes ma’am,” Cory said as she stood up, a frown crossed her forehead,

“Before I go Supreme Commander, are you feeling all right?”

Liza gave her a surprised smile,

“I am fine,” she said with an amused laugh,

Cory wasn’t so sure, something about Liza wasn’t right,

“As long as you are sure,”

“If you must know Cory, over the last few mornings I have been feeling sick, I can imagine it must be something I ate on that rotten planet, other than that I am fine,” Liza stated firmly,

“Have you seen a doctor?”

“No I haven’t, I have been too busy for that,” Liza replied,

“Do me a favour while I’m checking out this trace, see a doctor, the Federation needs a Supreme Commander that is fully fit and alert. If you wont do that for the Federation then do it for me please,” Cory said as she looked into Liza’s blue eyes with a worried look,

“I will,” Liza said with a resigned smile before returning to Drayson’s report,

Cory smiled, turned and walked out of the office leaving Liza alone to her reading, the Supreme Commander let out a sigh, she suddenly felt very queasy and felt her stomach turn, she quickly got to her feet, making her feel giddy and rushed to her bathroom were she threw up into her sink, after the final convulsion Liza looked into her mirror, she looked shattered,

“I think that you are right Cory, I need to see my doctor.” 

Cory Williams quickly marched into the central control room, she did a quick scan of the room and soon found the watch commander,

“Watch Commander Tyrell,” she called out as she marched towards him,

“Yes ma’am, how may I help you?” Tyrell replied as he turned to his superior officer and stood to attention,

“I will be leaving the station for a while, during that time I want you to report directly to the Supreme Commander,” Cory said firmly,

“Certainly Space Commander,”

“Is there anything to report before I go?” Cory questioned,

“Nothing to report ma’am, only the routine arrival of the robot supply ship,” Tyrell reported formerly,

“Very well Commander, keep it up, I should be back within the day,” Cory said before leaving the command room and marching to the teleport control room.

President Jack Nixon was sat in his office, it was a larger office to the one he had used when he was supreme commander but it was just as bland and undecorated, Nixon did not like the idea of hampering his professional life with personal effects, many of his family had collected things in the past, like his mother who had been his inspiration, she had always hoarded things, most of the time the things that she would collect would be useless trinkets, her collecting urge had eventually been her downfall, when she had kept hold of a crystal chalice that members of an under ground gang had wanted for its high credit value, they killed her for it, Nixon joined the military to seek his revenge in which he had achieved successfully. Nixon was tired after the meetings that he had attended over the last few days, what he had discovered was that the Federation was struggling, even with the donations from a number of wealthy benefactors the Federation was close to being bankrupt, over the last few days three Federation controlled worlds had turned there back on the Federation as the governors and their garrisons had not been paid for weeks, and the personnel had grown weary of the Administrations promises, Nixon was searching for ways to lift the Federation, he did not want to be the residing President when the Federation fell, at times he found that being the President of the Terran Federation wasn’t as good as he thought that it would be, the added restrictions to his life, the politics, always having to negotiate, he sometimes found himself wanting to be a Supreme Commander again, with a battle fleet things were far simpler, he didn’t have to hide behind political rhetoric, all he needed was a good shot at his enemies to get what he wanted, he sighed as he placed a report pad down upon his table when his door chime sounded,

“Who is it?” Nixon called into his intercom,

“Supreme Commander Ford, Mr President,”

“Enter,”

The office door opened and Liza Ford entered the room,

“How can I be of service Supreme Commander?”

“I have received a legal notice for charges directed at you sir,” Liza stated as she stood before her President,

Nixon sat back before crossing his arms, he seemed amused,

“From whom?” He asked, not sounding too concerned,

“Lord Cral Danay of Centero sir, he is pressing charges over the death of his younger brother Del Danay on Gauda Prime, apparently he has evidence that says that you shot him at point blank range when he gave you some bad news regarding the ship that was later known as the Freedom,”

Jack Nixon was suddenly worried, Cral Danay carried a lot of weight with the high council and he was a chief contributor to the Federation cause, Lord Danay had political muscle which he wasn’t afraid to use and he serves as the Chief Advocate for the Federation Justice Office. Nixon remembered the moment well, he used it as an object lesson for the engineers who were failing him, if he had known that Del was related to Cral he would have found someone else to shoot. Liza noticed his change in Nixon’s demeanour, she sighed and shook her head,

“I have been ordered to arrest you,”

“Really?” Nixon asked, looking her right in the eye,

“Not that I want to,” Liza said calmly,

“How can I make it disappear?” Nixon asked,

“There is something you can do for me, and I can say that I have investigated the issue, state that the evidence provided is flawed and tampered with and suggest that the charges should be dropped,” Liza suggested as she sat across from the President, crossing her legs as she made herself comfortable,

“And what is that?” Nixon pressed, feeling uncertain about what Liza was going to ask, 

“I was going through some files and I came across a reference that had been designated double A, something that referred to a place simply named Groundbase. What the hell is Groundbase?” Liza demanded,

Nixon sat back and crossed his arms, he took a deep breath before explaining in a quiet voice as if he didn’t want anyone else to know, even though the presidential office was fitted with sound proofing,

“Groundbase is a high level Federation military research and development base, only a very few people know of its existence,”

“Where is it?” Liza asked curiously,

Nixon smiled, he reached to his computer keyboard and keyed in some space co-ordinates, soon an image came up on his screen, the President turned the screen so it faced Liza Ford and said,

“You will find it on the edge of the galaxy, not too far away from where the old Star One complex had been,”

Liza studied the star chart, the planet had no designation number and all that the computer said about the planet was that is was habitable with a G2 grading,

“How many people are on the planet?” She asked,

“Around two hundred thousand, however the planet has the capability of holding over twenty million, it was a contingency measure, one that has been very helpful in the past, it also houses computer control,” Nixon replied calmly, watching his Supreme Commander as she studied the chart,

“I can see why not many people know of it, if the rebellion ever found out about this things would be far worse than what they are now,” Liza said before looking into Nixon’s eyes,

“I guess that the population have been screened to prevent them from telling anyone where they are?” She queried,

“That is right, no one on Groundbase can speak to anyone that does not come from the planet, unless the screening is removed, of it’s someone with high level clearance,”

Liza thought for a moment,

“I would like to see what Groundbase is like,” she said to herself,

“No supreme commander has ever gone to Groundbase, it is not procedure, such a thing could draw attention to it,” Nixon pointed out,

“That was your procedure Nixon, it is not mine, I want to know everything there is to know about the Federation, Groundbase is a military instillation, that makes it my business and therefore I shall go and have a look,” Liza told Nixon as she straightened in the chair,

“You are always changing procedures aren’t you Liza?”

“Yes sir, the Federation will change to my vision, one that will ensure its survival,” Liza replied resolutely,

“Many officers are afraid of change, some of your reforms have caused discontent within the ranks, many people do not appreciate having to ditch old ideas purely because their new supreme commander tells them to,” Nixon stated, it sounded like a warning,

“Those officers that cannot change will have to, there is no place in the Federation for them if they are not willing to follow my standing orders, if they have a problem with that they are quite welcome to leave or they will be demoted, I do not want people here who are not here for the Federations best interests, if changing a few old policies assist in the Federations survival then so be it,” Liza stated firmly, looking Nixon right in the eye,

Jack Nixon smiled, he could see why he had commissioned her as Supreme

Commander, she had a blind determination to win, to get her own way and Nixon felt sure that with Liza’s guidance the Federation would continue for many more years. 

“Cral Danay?” Nixon asked,

“Who?” Liza replied with a smile.

On deck nine, service zone three, a hand opening door slowly creaked open into a passage way, Danial Carson glanced to his left and then right, making sure that the way was clear, once certain that it was he stepped out, keeping his gun levelled at all times, feeling very alert and his survival senses working over time,

“Clear,” he announced,

With a sudden flurry his crew mates appeared into the passage, all with guns drawn and at the ready with small brown ruck sacks that contained some useful tools and high explosives over their shoulders, Kerr Logan scanned the passage, he saw two other doors on his left and one more to his right, all were marked as storage rooms,

“Let’s get this over and done with,” he said as he made his way to the end of the passage that opened into a large stock holding area which was full with crates, some full, others empty, he saw no one nearby, he reached out with his senses, searching for any signs of life, behind him he felt the presence of his crew along with their nervousness, that made him feel better, he felt nervous too, ahead he felt four life signs in an office in the far left hand corner of the holding area that was right next to the exit that they needed to go through if they were to proceed further into the station, Logan turned to his comrades who had now gathered a few meters behind him,

“There are four people in the supply received office,” he said quietly,

“I can get rid of them,” Karla stated firmly as she joined Logan’s side,

“Do it,” Logan ordered coldly as he began to move forward,

Karla rushed ahead, it seemed to Logan that she had chosen the idea that speed and surprise was the best way to get rid of the people in the office, she reached the office door and peered inside, there were four people, all of them were playing a game of poker and all of them were concentrating so much in trying to win the game that Karla was sure that they wouldn’t even hear the group as they passed,

“Walk on passed Logan, I don’t think that they will hear us,” Karla called telepathically,

Logan nodded and gestured to the others,

“Let’s move, and be real quiet like,” he said with a slight smile, he knew full well that they did not need to be told.

The group moved out of the storage area and walked quietly passed the office door, Karla kept watch, her gun trained on the four card players at all times, but as she had thought they didn’t hear the group of rebels as they passed by. Once clear of the office the rebel group reached a tee junction, Logan turned to Danial,

“Take Karla and Samantha and head to engineering, Roxy and I will head to computer control,”

“Send out the signal once you are done,” Danial reminded Logan,

“You too, once we are ready I’ll send the signal to Orac,” Logan replied as he and Roxy turned to head down the right hand side passageway,

“Good luck,” Roxy said to Samantha and Karla, sounding as worried as Logan had felt,

“You too,” Karla replied with a reassuring smile before Danial confidently lead his team down the opposing passageway. 

Ironside sat at the flight controls of the Arien, he was sat back with his feet up on the control board, it had been two hours since Logan and the others had boarded the robot ship, according to Logan’s predictions they should now be onboard the station, Ironside let out a sigh, he was bored, he was about to rise to his feet when the Slave computer announced,

“I WOULD NOT LIKE TO WORRY YOU SIR, BUT THREE FEDERATION PURSUIT SHIPS HAVE ENTERED DETECTOR RANGE,”

“Evasive course Slave, maximum speed,” Ironside ordered, following Logan’s suggestion in making sure that the Arien was in one piece by the time the raid was over and the group needed to escape Federation Space Command quickly.

Cory Williams sat on the captain’s chair, she turned to her detector control officer,

“Anything to report?”

The detector controller studied his instruments before turning to Cory to give her his report,

“Nothing Space Commander, all detectors are clear,”

Cory nodded before turning to the pursuit ship captain, who was a twenty five year old alpha graded woman with cropped blonde hair and slate grey eyes,

“Captain Carringdon, continue with our current flight path, we must be sure that no one is out here,” Cory said as she stood beside the slightly taller, blonde haired woman,

“Certainly Space Commander,” Carringdon replied surely,

Commander Williams smiled before turning to the exit,

“I’ll be in my quarters, inform me if you detect anything out of the ordinary,” she ordered as she glanced over her shoulder, looking over Carringdon’s firm, pert and eye pleasing feminine form, she looked as beautiful from behind as she did from the front, Cory let out a soft sigh before leaving the flight deck in Captain Carringdon’s capable hands. 

Karla Ford carefully looked around a corner, ahead of her were a group of technicians who were working at a maintenance crawl way, obviously trying to repair the flickering lighting that ran down the passage,

“Damn,” she cursed as she turned to Danial and Samantha,

“How many of them?” Samantha asked as she took a step nearer,

“Five of them, two up ladders,” Karla replied as Danial pushed to her side, he studied the group of technicians and smiled,

“We can walk right on by these people, I doubt that they will notice us, come on,” Danial said as he lead the way,

“Danial,” Samantha said as she took his arm and stopped him from moving any further,

“How can you be so sure?” She asked,

“Trust me Samantha, these people will have no interest in us, they are labour grades, their only interest is getting paid at the end of the week and besides, they have no idea who we are, they would not have been able to watch the vid-casts about us, they do not have that kind of excess,” Danial replied softly but firmly,

“If you are sure Danial?”

“I’m walking towards them aren’t I?” Danial asked as he shrugged Samantha off of his arm and continued forward, Karla and Samantha shrugged their shoulders before sliding their guns into their holsters,

“Let’s go then,” Karla said, sounding a little concerned.

The group of three rebels walked towards the technicians, who were so busy working on the stations electric’s that they didn’t even notice the rebels as they walked by,

“Told you,” Danial said with a confident smirk,

“So you did,” Karla replied as she looked over her shoulder, satisfying herself that the technicians were still concentration on their work, in which they were.

Roxy stood by a lift shaft, she turned to Logan who was stood behind her,

“I’m surprised that it has been so easy to walk through this station. I expected to see nothing but security,” Roxy said quietly,

“On the engineering decks you will hardly see security, there might just be one or two guards on patrol but nothing to worry about,” Logan stated as the lift indicator showed that the lift had arrived, Logan reached out his senses beyond the lifts doors,

“There are two people inside, both will be leaving on this deck,” Logan said quietly to Roxy as he hid his gun under his jacket, Roxy took his lead and kept her gun behind her back hopefully out of sight. When the door opened two men in engineers overalls stepped out, Roxy smiled at them warmly as they passed, both looked at her and smiled in return but thought nothing more of the two rebels before continuing on their way,

Logan and Roxy stepped into the lift before Logan hit the door control,

“The next part is going to be a lot harder, once we are on deck eleven security will be far tighter,” Logan said softly as he placed a comforting hand on Roxy’s lower back, he smirked,

“Far tighter than that cat-suit,” he quipped, gently stroking Roxy’s right hip with his finger tips,

Roxy gave him a warm smile, he was trying to raise her spirits but with Kerr by her side it wasn’t necessary, she felt safe and confident, the lovely sensation of being covered in a warm blanket that she had first felt back on Septer Prime surrounded her again, she smirked and checked the energy level on her gun, it was still registering full power,

“Then we better be ready for it,” she said firmly as she looked into Logan’s eyes with a warm smile. 

Cory Williams stepped back onto the flight deck, she felt refreshed after a long shower, her long brown hair that she usually had tied into a ponytail cascaded over her shoulders and fell to the small of her back, she smiled at Captain Carringdon as the other officer rose out of the captains chair to give the Space Commander a report,

“We have scanned the whole sector Space Commander, there is nothing to report,”

“Very well, head back to Space Command Headquarters at time distort one,” Cory ordered,

“Time distort one, Ma’am?” Carringdon questioned, knowing that it would take half a day to reach Space Command at that speed,

“That is right Captain, I want to be able to monitor this sector for as long as possible just to be safe,” Cory replied with a warm smile,

“Certainly Space Commander,” Carringdon answered before she turned to the flight deck crew,

“Inform pursuit ships two and three that we are returning to Space Command at time distort one, engage,” Carringdon ordered firmly as Cory looked on, finding it hard not to check out the other female officer.

Danial Carson and his team approached a door marked engineering, so far they hadn’t encountered any resistance, even with Space Command being on high security it had been easy, far too easy for Danial’s liking, Danial tried the door, it was locked,

“Karla,” he ordered as he gestured to the lock,

Samantha took the left hand side of the door as Danial stood opposite her, guarding Karla as she went to work on the locking mechanism,

“Talk amongst yourselves, this could take a while,” Karla said as she examined the lock, it was a new type of lock that Karla had only come across once before, even then it took a blast of a laser rifle to open it,

Samantha kept her eyes trained down the corridor, she was sure that she could hear someone or something approaching,

“Hurry up Karla,” she urged,

“I’m going as fast as I can,” Karla replied as she removed the locks outer casing which revealed a jumbled mess of coloured wiring,

“This looks like it is going to be fun,” Karla said to herself,

Danial’s eyes narrowed, he heard some people ahead of him and they sounded like they were drawing nearer,

“I concur with Samantha, get that door open,” Danial ordered firmly, glancing down at Karla who was now cutting a number of wires and tying them back together but mismatching the colours,

“Almost done,” Karla informed her comrades,

“Danial,” Samantha said quietly, gesturing down the corridor,

Just turning around the far junction from the left hand side emerged a security robot, it seemed as if it hadn’t detected the three rebels yet but as it began to move closer to them it would only be a matter of time, Danial cursed under his breath,

“Damn it Karla get that door open now,”

“Almost there,” Karla said, trying to remain calm,

“Not good enough Karla,” Samantha snapped.

At that moment, the security robot detected the rebels, its central chest gun dropped out of its housing and aimed at the three humans,

“Got it,” Karla announced with a satisfied smile as the door hissed open,

“Get in now,” Danial commanded as he fired on the robot, his shot had no effect, it just bounced off of its side and exploded harmlessly into the wall.

The robot fired its cannon, its plasma bolt struck the wall as the rebels ducked into engineering, the security robot moved closer for the kill as Samantha hit the door control, the door closed just in time to prevent the next plasma bolt from incinerating them, Danial turned to Samantha and smiled,

“Good timing,” he said breathlessly,

“Thanks,” Samantha said as Karla turned and looked into the engineering section of Space Command, it was far bigger than the plans let on,

“This is going to take time,” Karla said as the other two joined her side.

Suddenly alarms went off,

“We don’t have time, let’s get this done,” Danial snapped as he rushed over to the nearest of the twenty power generators followed quickly by the two women.

“Remember, three explosive charges per generator, one under the control console, one on the negative power couplings and the other charge set on the safety cut out system,” Karla shouted out as she reached into her ruck sack and produced an explosive charge,

“We know Karla,” Samantha called back as she reached a generator, squatted down by a computer terminal and set the first charge,

“And remember that we have to set explosives on all twenty generators, if we miss just one it will be able to control the energy feed back preventing the station from exploding,” Danial stated firmly as he set two of his charges on a generator,

”What are you doing?”

Danial suddenly stopped what he was doing, he turned to see an ageing engineer approaching,

“Who are you, you are not supposed to be here?” The engineer asked, looking worried,

“Nor are you,” Danial snapped as he pulled his gun on the old man and without hesitation shot him dead,

“Let’s get on with this, we haven’t got much time,” Danial shouted out over the noise of the twenty power generators and the security alarm.

The alarms sounded around the station, red lights flashed and black uniformed Federation guards began running to and fro, Logan and Roxy had hidden themselves within a storage cupboard once the alarms had gone off, the cupboard was a small room, less than a meter square, Roxy felt happier being in such a cramped space with Logan than she would have down with anyone else, Logan kept his gun trained on the door and he had his other hand holding Roxy’s waist, the sound of footsteps outside was slowly fading into the distance,

“What do you think happened?” Roxy asked in a soft whisper,

“Either the Federation are going through a drill or Danial has been a little careless,” Logan replied before Roxy spoke into her teleport pin,

“Danial, can you hear me?”

There was a brief silence before Danial spoke,

“I hear you Roxy,”

“What is going on Danial, have the Federation seen you?” Roxy asked,

“Yes, a security robot detected us, can’t speak too long Roxy I’ve got work to do,” Danial quickly answered,

Logan was about to speak to him but Danial cut off the communication,

“What now?” Roxy asked,

“We carry on as before, this little incident could buy us some time, security will be concentrating on Danial,” Logan said as he reached out his feelings beyond the door, he could feel no one outside,

“Let’s move, as Danial had said we’ve got work to do,” Logan said firmly.

The corridor was silent as Logan and Roxy stepped out of the storage cupboard, they both took deep breath as they continued on their way, their guns drawn looking in all directions as they headed to computer control, they were not too far away from it now, the nearer they got the faster paced their walking became until they were jogging. They reached the computer control room and Logan hit the door control, as the door hissed open they rushed the room, inside, sat at their designated work stations were white uniformed computer controllers, the room also had a small security presence that consisted of only three armed guards who were just as surprised by the intruders as the controllers were, they tried to level their guns on Logan and Roxy but were too slow to get a shot off, they fell to Roxy’s highly accurate gun fire,

“Good shooting Roxy,” Logan said before peppering the room with plasma.

The computer controllers dived for cover, most of then were dead before they hit the hard tiled flooring, Roxy gave Logan a shocked glance,

“They would have hindered us, we cannot have any delays,” Logan said quickly to Roxy’s unasked question,

Roxy nodded, she understood why the controllers had to die but she didn’t like it, she looked on as Logan finished off the remaining controllers before hitting the door control and securing the door,

“Let’s get started,” Roxy said, knowing that those controllers would die anyway once the station had exploded,

Logan smiled at her,

“I’ll keep the door covered, you crash the computer system and I will start planting the charges,” he ordered,

“Yes sir,” Roxy said with a smirk as she rushed to the nearest computer bank and began to hammer at its keyboard.

Liza Ford stepped out of President Nixon’s office and was quickly met by an out of breath black uniformed guard,

“Supreme Commander, we have a problem,” he gasped,

“I know you do, you should be fitter soldier,” Liza snapped, not liking the idea that one of her soldiers wasn’t fit enough to run and give her a message,

“A security robot on the engineering level has detected intruders Supreme Commander,” the trooper reported quickly,

“Intruders, here?” Liza asked, not believing the officer,

“It is true ma’am,” the soldier protested,

“Has a security unit been sent down to deal with them?” Liza asked,

“Not yet Supreme Commander,”

“Then send one down to engineering immediately,” Liza Ford commanded,

“At once ma’am,” the soldier said before running off,

“Who the hell could it be,” Liza asked herself as she headed back to her office, suddenly it dawned on her,

“Logan, it has to be,”

At that moment another trooper ran to Liza, he stopped quickly before her and stood at attention to give her a report, unlike the previous officer he wasn’t so exhausted,

“What is it?” Liza snapped, with the feeling that Logan was onboard Space Command worried her immensely, she knew what he was capable of,

“Supreme Commander we have just lost computer control, all systems have crashed,” the trooper reported,

“What?” Liza roared, this wasn’t good,

“Have you tried to contact computer control?”

“Yes ma’am but we have had no answer,”

Liza’s eyes widened with rage, of all of the Arien’s crew she knew that the only people capable to shut down the computer system were Logan and Roxanne,

“Send a security team to computer control now,” Liza ordered,

The trooper was about to turn and run to issue the order when Liza suddenly stopped him,

“Wait, I’ll assemble the team, I will go there myself,” she stated firmly,

“Yes Supreme Commander,”

Liza marched down the corridor with the trooper close behind, acting as her escort, the Supreme Commander took a deep breath,

“I have a score to settle with those two.” 

Danial glanced up from placing another charge of explosives upon his fifth power generator, since shooting the old engineer he hadn’t come across any others, Danial had just assumed that every other engineer had made a run for it, as he scanned ahead of him he saw Karla working on attaching an explosive onto a computer terminal when he suddenly noticed three Federation guards approaching just beyond the half Auron,

“Karla, to your left,” he shouted,

Without hesitation, Karla drew her gun, turned and let off a volley of plasma, hitting two of the guards but missing the third who ducked behind an engineering work station and returned fire, he was soon joined by other guardsmen, an exchange of gun fire began, even with their inferiority in numbers, Danial, Karla and Samantha forced the Federation guards back in a deadly crossfire. Danial turned to where Samantha was firing from and called out,

“Samantha, carry on with the explosives, we must get this part of the operation completed, Karla and I will cover you,”

Samantha King nodded and did as she was told as the gunfire persisted, every so often she would duck for cover as a plasma bolt was fired in her direction, very occasionally she would return fire, a gesture to let the Federation guards know that she was still there and that she was still in the fight.

Roxy and Logan turned to each other, Roxy tossed aside her empty ruck sack, Logan still had some charges left, he pushed them back into his bag and threw the sack over his shoulder, both were breathing heavily, they had planted the explosives in all integral computer systems, Roxy smiled,

“That is us done, now let’s get out of here,” she said in gasps,

“Right,” Logan agreed as he raised his teleport pin to his mouth and spoke into it,

“Orac, stage one is complete, verify completion of stage two,”

“NEGITIVE, STAGE TWO IS NOT COMPLETE,” Orac reported tetchily, the computer had made its reservations known that it did not like being used as a high speed communicator link,

“Now we see if we can help Danial,” Logan told Roxy,

“Agreed,” the blonde said with a nod of her head.

Logan rushed to the door with Roxy close behind, he opened the door and poked his head into the corridor and saw that it was all clear,

“Let’s go,” he said before darting out of the computer control room,

Roxy followed, at that moment she heard something behind her, Roxy turned to see Liza Ford and five Federation guardsmen running towards them from a nearby junction,

“We’ve got company,” Roxy shouted out,

Logan stopped and turned, he aimed his gun and fired.

Liza Ford saw the two rebels rush out of computer control, suddenly she was spotted by Roxy who said something, something that made Logan stop and direct his gun in her direction,

“Dive for cover,” Liza commanded,

Her guards split up and headed to the thresholds of the nearest doorways, Liza followed suit as Logan fired off a shot that missed her troopers and exploded on the far wall. Liza took aim and opened fire, her troopers took her lead filling the corridor with deadly plasma.

Roxy turned and ran for it, Logan had already reached the nearest junction and was now returning fire from around a corner with a higher intensity,

“Come on Roxy,” he shouted, fearful that his woman could get hurt or worst still, killed,

Roxy tried to run faster than her legs could cope with and she tripped and fell, the shock of hitting the floor causing her to lose her grip on her gun.

Liza watched Roxy drop to the floor, she smiled and turned to two of her troopers,

“Pin her down, don’t let her move,” she commanded, 

“You other three, concentrate all fire on the man, prevent him from getting to the woman,” Liza instructed, having the feeling of victory,

“Advance,” the Supreme Commander ordered.

Roxy tried to move but every time she was about to slide herself along the floor she was pelted by gunfire, every shot missed but they weren’t too far away, she could feel the heat of the plasma as it passed overhead. Logan attempted to help Roxy but every time he moved around the corner he was met by an intense volley of plasma,

“Roxy,” he cried out,

“Get out of here, save yourself,” Roxy called back,

“I’m not leaving you here,” Logan shouted, preparing himself to open fire on the guards that he had noticed were closing fast,

“Go Kerr, please,” Roxy urged, looking helplessly at the corner where Logan was standing,

“Very touching,” Liza snapped as she stood over Roxy with her gun trained on the blonde woman,

“Get Logan,” she commanded her troopers.

The five Federation guards rushed the corner but Logan wasn’t there, he was gone,

“He is not here Supreme Commander,” the section leader said with a sense of amazement,

“Find him, this one is mine,” Liza shouted as she kicked Roxy’s gun further down the corridor,

“On your feet Roxanne Davis,” Liza commanded as the troopers headed down the corridor leaving her alone with young rebel,

Roxy took a couple of deep breaths before rising to her feet, she turned to Liza who stood with a gun trained on her,

“You have really surprised me, I never expected you to take up my invite by coming here to destroy Space Command, I knew that by telling Ironside of the meetings at Space Command Logan would have been tempted by the possibilities, but I never imagined that he would try,“ Liza said with a smile as she visually checked Roxy for any more weapons, as expected Roxy had her sabre with her,

“I couldn’t care less about what you thought,” Roxy snapped defiantly, feeling a little concerned that Liza seemed to have planned their attack,

“What shall I do with you?” The Supreme Commander asked as she stepped closer to the shorter blonde woman,

“Do I care?” Roxy questioned,

“I’m sure you will. Tell me Roxy, have you improved in you duelling abilities, are you better than you were when we last fought?”

“Why don’t we find out?” Roxy asked with confidence,

“Why not indeed?” Liza said as she tossed her gun aside and removed her sabre from her belt.

The gun battle raged in engineering, the three rebels held their ground but reaching the furthest generators was now becoming fraught with problems, the problems being dressed in the familiar black uniforms of Federation Iron Guards,

“What are we going to do now?” Karla shouted at Danial,

“We get the job done,” Danial raged as he let off a volley of plasma,

“How the hell are we going to do that?” Samantha called out, ducking out of the way of a plasma bolt that exploded above her head

“I’m working on it,” Danial said to himself as he looked around him, things looked bleak, it was a no win situation, they had planted the explosive charges on all but five of the generators which the Federation guards had taken cover behind, they couldn’t run back or to either side because of the likelihood of getting shot, in Danial’s mind they were trapped. Suddenly there was more gunfire coming from behind the lines of the Federation guards followed by an explosion that rocked the large engineering section sending out a heavy cloud of smoke out in all directions, Danial was able to see some of the guards turn to fire at someone but then the smoke fell over the floor obscuring his view, 

“What the hell has happened?” Samantha questioned as the gunfire died,

“I have no idea,” Danial said, shrugging his shoulders,

Karla reached out her limited senses out into the cloud, she was suddenly hit by a powerful presence that was seeking out and then destroying, she recognised the presence,

“It’s Logan,” Karla called out with a wide, victorious grin,

“How can you tell?” Danial asked,

“I’m part Auron, I can feel his presence,”

Suddenly the gunfire stopped, from the cloud of smoke emerged Kerr Logan, a gun in one hand and a crumpled up rucksack in the other. Danial, Karla and Samantha stood still, all feeling a sense of relief, Danial was shaking his head with a smile,

“Where’s Roxy?” Karla asked, she couldn’t see or sense the other woman,

“She is dealing with an old grudge,” Logan said as he joined his crew,

“So what are you three standing around for, you’ve got a job to do,” he snapped as he clapped his hands together to get his crew mates working.

Danial lead the two women in setting the remaining charges as Logan walked to the centre of the engineering section, he reached out with his mind, beyond the walls of engineering and into the corridors behind, he sensed that there were three guards outside one of the four entrances of engineering, six behind another and eight trying to get passed the other, no one was behind the fourth door but Logan felt that the security robot would be standing guard,

“Hurry up you three we haven’t got much time,” Logan called out, knowing that it was standard operating procedure for a Federation guard to blast his way through a door using a wide firing spread if it will not open and by the sound of banging that came from three of the doors the guards were doing just that. Logan quickly reached out further, he soon found the familiar presence of Roxy and going by what he felt she was fighting for her life.

The lights of the corridor flashed on the flailing blades and Liza Ford and Roxy Davis fought in what could be their final battle, Roxy went for Liza’s head but the Federation Supreme Commander blocked what would have been a killer strike and quickly struck back, hoping to take Roxy by surprise but it wasn’t to be, the little blonde was faster than Liza had given her credit,

“You have improved Roxanne, Logan has taught you well,” Liza said with a complimentary smile, knowing that only Logan could have taught her how to use a sword properly,

“I have been training every day since our last fight so I could bring you down,” Roxy said firmly before attacking Liza again,

Liza stood her ground, she wasn’t going to give Roxy anything, she blocked once and then again as Roxy probed for an opening, Liza was surprised by Roxy’s strength and level of accuracy, Liza feinted to the left and then to the right before trying to strike Roxy’s mid rift, the blonde was equal to it and parried the attack,

“You lied to me Liza,” Roxy said between attempts to kill the Federation officer,

“Really?” Liza said as she forced Roxy backwards,

“You said that you had killed my father, I know that you didn’t, you wouldn’t have done,” Roxy stated firmly as she regained her ground,

“What makes you say that, wasn’t it easier for you to think that I had killed him, didn’t it make you angry?” Liza taunted,

“I still hate you Liza, I always will. Being angry with you will remain with me even though you lied to me, even though you didn’t kill my father. I spoke to my mother recently, she told me all about what you and my father got up to. I hate you for making me think that you had killed him, I hate you even more for destroying my family,” Roxy snapped as she finally gained more ground on Liza who was finding it difficult to hold back Roxy’s attack,

“I wasn’t the only one there remember, your father wanted me as much as I wanted him,” Liza snapped,

“Why did you lie to me?” Roxy questioned,

“I wanted information from you, I hoped that telling you that I had killed your father would aid me in getting that information, but instead you froze even more, you were stronger that I gave you credit for,” Lisa confessed before attacking Roxy with an intense volley, one direction and then another, her sabre falling on Roxy’s, which seemingly parried her attacks with ease.

The battle stopped for a moment, both women stood facing each other, their sabres brought to bear as they caught their breaths,

“I expected to kill you sooner than this but I can wait, I haven’t lost a duel in well over three years,” Liza said with conviction,

“There is always a first time, like your precious Federation, you will fall,” Roxy countered with confidence,

“The Federation will never fall Roxanne, the Fifth Reich will remain in existence far longer than you will,” Liza retaliated,

“Never,” Roxy shouted before attacking Liza, bringing her sabre down upon the Supreme Commanders head, Liza blocked and parried the second attempt to kill her as Roxy went on the offensive.

Liza backed off, finding it harder and harder to sustain her defence, she blocked, parried and blocked again, backing away with every attack, finding herself being pushed into the computer control room. Once inside, Liza saw the explosives that Logan and Roxy had planted,

“You look to have done a good job,”

“Why thank you, I’ll remember to tell Kerr that you complimented us on your destruction,” Roxy said sarcastically before Liza tried to go on the attack, Roxy brought her blade to bear, parrying Liza’s sabre, with Liza rallying for another attack Roxy struck with surprising speed, Liza wasn’t able to defend herself, the blade passed through her defence, cutting through her wrist like it was paper, Liza cried out in absolute agony, she watched helplessly as her hand that still held on to her sabre fell to the floor, her blood spilling after it from the blooded stump that was her wrist, Roxy stepped backward as Liza fell to her knees, holding her forearm, wailing in pain as she stared through her tears at her wrist, Roxy reached her sabre above her head and was about to bring it down on to Liza Ford when she noticed what she had done bringing her to an immediate stop, Liza looked up at her,

“Finish me,” she cried out, tears streaming down her face,

Roxy was breathing hard, she lowered her blade and closed it down,

“That would make me worse than you,” she said between heavy gasps,

“I said back on Saint Portia Major that you were not a worthy enemy, nice to know that I was right,” Liza said between clenched teeth, trying in vain to hold back the pain,

“Sometimes it is best to let people think what they want,” Roxy said coldly,

“You could never kill me Roxanne, in the past you have had the chance but you have never taken it,” Liza snapped, wiping the tears from her cheeks,

“You’re going to die anyway so what does it matter?” Roxy said as she raised her teleport pin that she had clipped onto her cuff to her mouth

“Kerr, how are things?”

“We are ready Roxy, I have sent the signal, the Arien is on its way,” Logan’s voice called back to her,

“Thanks,” Roxy said before closing down her comlink,

“I should be leaving you shortly,” she announced with a victorious smile,

“You will never get off this station, your precious Arien will never get passed the security that is around this station,” Liza taunted,

“That is where you are wrong, when Kerr and I closed down the computers we gave your strategy computers one last order, to send all of your ships to another sector,” Roxy counted victoriously,

“You will never kill me Roxanne, I’ll always be there waiting to strike,” Liza shouted defiantly,

“Not when this station goes up you won’t,” Roxy countered,

“You will never be certain that I’m dead Roxanne, not unless you finish me now, that is the only way,” Liza demanded,

“No,” Roxy said as she stepped backwards, glaring into Liza’s pain filled eyes,

“I will not give you that satisfaction.”

The detector controller suddenly turned to Space Commander Cory Williams,

“Madam, detectors show that a starship is approaching Space Command at high speed, it is registering as the Arien, computers suggest that it is on an attack coarse,”

Cory Williams turned from her conversation with Captain Carringdon, her eyes wide as she quickly marched across the flight deck towards the detector controller,

“What is its position?” Cory questioned,

The detector controller turned to his monitors, checked the star chart database before turning to his commander,

“Grid reference two one zero four point seven, speed time distort eleven,”

“Where are we?” Cory asked,

“We are at grid reference seven six nine four point one, ma’am,”

Cory checked his screens, it was clear to her that even at top speed she could never reach the Arien before it could strike Space Command, the only option was for the defence system of Space Command to handle the Arien itself, 

“Communications, inform Space Command of the situation, recommend that all station defences to be activated now,” Cory commanded,

The communications officer tried to relay the command but all he got back was static,

“Space Commander, I can not get through to Space Command,”

Cory stomped over to him, she was now very worried,

“You must be able to,” she snapped,

“I can’t, it is like the station isn’t even there,” the communications officer said with a shake of the head,

“It has to be there, we are not that far away from it. Try another frequency,” Cory commanded,

“I have tried five different frequencies Space Commander,”

“What about contacting the fleets around Space Command?” Cory asked,

“What fleets, my screen shows that there are no other ships between the Arien and Space Command?” The detector controller called out,

“What, where are they?” Cory raged,

“I have no idea,” the controller answered worriedly,

Cory looked towards the detector controller, she took a deep breath, there was only one option now, she had to try and engage the Arien herself. As the Space Commander walked to the captain’s chair she stopped, suddenly a thought hit her,

“Oh no, the Arien is not attacking the station, it is picking up its crew who are onboard the station,”

“Meaning?” Captain Carringdon asked,

“Meaning, that they are trying to destroy Space Command but not with a direct assault, but with a covert operation from within,” Cory replied as she suddenly spun on her heel and looked at the main screen that now showed the Arien,

“If they are successful they will destroy the whole command and control structure of the entire Federation, if that happens---,”

“The Federation will fall,” Carringdon said as Cory came to a stop,

“Oh shit,” Cory cursed. 

Lyle Ironside stood over the flight controls, he watched every monitor that he could, surprised that not one Federation warship was making an approach on him,

“Stand by Orac,” he called out to the computer that was buzzing to itself quite contentedly,

“I AM WELL AWARE OF WHAT IS NEEDED TO BE DONE AND WHEN IT IS TO BE DONE IRONSIDE, I DO NOT NEED TO BE TOLD BY YOU,”

Orac snapped tetchily,

“Just make sure that you teleport all of them onboard, we cannot leave anyone behind,” Ironside stated forcefully,

“AS I HAVE SAID, I AM AWARE OF THE SITUATION,” Orac countered,

“I am glad to hear it,” Ironside said as he looked over his monitors, still no Federation ship made an attempt to engage him, a beeping indicator light sounded, telling Ironside that is was time to reduce the Arien’s speed,

“Slave, slow to time distort five,” Ironside ordered,

“CERTAINLY SIR, THE ARIEN IS NOW SLOWING, I HOPE THAT IS TO YOUR REQUIREMENTS SIR,” Slave grovelled,

“It will be once we are at T.D five,” Ironside snapped, feeling his palms becoming sweaty, his breathing was becoming heavier and his heart raced, it wasn’t long to go now.

Danial turned to Logan as the hammering on the doors grew louder, both were unsure how long the doors would hold against Federation para hand guns,

“How much longer?” Samantha asked, who was keeping watch over one of the doors, it began to buckle,

“It can’t be too long now,” Logan replied, at that moment a chimer sounded in Logan’s jacket pocket, it was the teleport ready chime, he smiled at Danial,

“Ten seconds,” he announced.

Roxy stood over Liza Ford, she had made sure that Liza hadn’t been able to summon help. Liza was sweating profusely, her head swam, she felt weak, Liza knew that she was close to blacking out,

“Do the honourable thing Roxanne, kill me now,” Liza demanded in a dry, broken voice,

“I have beaten you Liza, that is all I wanted to do,” Roxy said firmly as her teleport pin let out a soft chime,

“Roxy here,” she said into the pin,

“Stand by for teleport,” Logan commanded,

“I’m ready,” Roxy replied with a wide smile,

“Good,” Logan said before the communication cut off,

“This is were we say goodbye,” Roxy told Liza who was now leaning forward, supported on her one remaining hand,

“Goodbye then,” Liza said weakly but still with a hint of sarcasm, she felt the tiny hairs on her body stand on end, the hiss of pink noise sounded before everything went quiet, Liza glanced up, Roxy was gone, even with death approaching Liza managed a slight smile.

The crew of the Arien appeared on the teleport platform, they turned to each other and smiled, suddenly Ironside’s voice came over the intercom,

“Battle stations, we have three Federation ships heading our way,”

“Let’s do as he says,” Logan ordered as he rushed to the flight deck followed by his crew.

Cory watched on her main screen as her pursuit ship approached the Arien, she smiled as she turned to her gunnery controller,

“Fire when they are in range,” she ordered as she sat back,

“Now it is time that I finished the job we had supposed to have done back on Domserrat,” she said to herself with a bitter tone.

Kerr Logan rushed into the flight deck and sat at the flight controls, the crew of the Arien rushed to their positions as he scanned his control board before turning to the Slave computer,

“Slave, plot us a course heading that will take us on the safest heading out of here,” he commanded,

“UH, TRY COURSE THREE SEVEN TWO ONE POINT THREE MASTER,” the computer responded worriedly,

Logan keyed in the course heading and quickly turned to Roxy who was sat at the ship systems control board,

“Our power status?”

“Bank nine is empty, we are drawing on bank eight, we have full power on the remaining banks, instruments also show that all systems are operating normally,” Roxy reported as she strapped herself down,

“Federation ships coming in,” Karla reported as she looked away from the detector controls,

“How many of them?” Samantha asked as she braced herself at the communication control position,

“Three,” Karla replied,

“That is no problem,” Logan announced with a smile,

“I’ll activate the weapons system,” Danial stated, hammering the control board in front of him bringing the weapons controls on line,

“What class of Federation ships are they?” Logan asked Karla,

“Galaxy class, mark nine,” the half Auron reported,

“Other than the GXY’s they are top of the range, we cannot outrun them even if we tried,” Danial stated firmly,

“I’m well aware of that,” Logan countered as he checked his monitors,

“The only way to beat them would be to engage them,” he said to himself but loud enough for his crew to hear,

“You tried that before Logan and this ship didn’t come off too well,” Samantha pointed out, referring to the encounter with Liza Ford’s pursuit ships over XK—98,

“But the Arien is better equipped for it now,” Logan replied,

“Decide something quickly Logan, the pursuit ships have now entered attack range,” Karla reported strongly, watching her monitors worriedly.

Cory Williams smiled, she knew that her ships were now in attack range, she took a deep breath and turned to Captain Carringdon,

“Engage the enemy,” she ordered,

Carringdon nodded and stepped closer to the flight crew of the lead pursuit ship,

“Weapons controller, target the Arien, destroy it,” she commanded forcefully.

Without hesitation, the gunnery controller targeted the battle computers and released a volley of five deadly plasma bolts, all were running true.

Karla’s eyes widened as the five plasma bolts were detected on her monitors,

“Plasma bolts launched, running true,” she called out,

“Not anymore,” Logan snapped as he put the Arien into a stomach-churning dive.

Cory watched helplessly as the Arien dove, the five plasma bolts missed their target and sailed into the distance before burning themselves out,

“How the hell did he do that?” Carringdon asked Cory,

“That is Logan for you, he earned the reputation of being the very best space pilot the Federation ever had,” Cory replied as she turned to the flight controller,

“Follow him, don’t let him out of range. Gunnery controller, this time take into consideration what Logan is capable of when you fire at him,” Cory snapped commandingly. 

Karla turned to Logan with a wide smile on her lips,

“They missed, the plasma bolts missed,” she declared,

“I knew they would, so less of the panicking,” Logan snapped as he continued to steer the Arien as far as he could away from Federation Space Command and from Cory Williams pursuit ships,

“Orac, stand by to send the signal trigger to the explosives,” Logan commanded,

“We aren’t at the recommended safe distance, if we set off the charges now we could be destroyed along with Space Command,” Karla protested as she pointed at her monitors, seeing that they needed to be a further one million spacials away to be in the clear,

“We can ride the shock wave,” Logan stated firmly, sounding as though he knew what he was doing,

“You cannot be serious?” Danial asked in amazement,

“I am very serious Danial,” Logan countered as he steered the Arien away from Space Command and brought the speed up to maximum,

“Orac, do it,” Logan ordered,

“VERY WELL, THE SIGNAL HAS BEEN SENT,” Orac obeyed, sounding very reluctant.

Cory watched as the starship Arien headed away from Space Command, she rubbed her hands together as her gunnery commander reported,

“Target is locked, weapons are standing by for firing,”

Cory took a deep breath,

“Fire.”

Liza Ford tried in vain to get out of the computer control room, she was far too weak to even slide herself across the floor, suddenly there was a loud roar followed by a powerful vibration, the walls shook, ceiling panels crashed to the floor and some of the flooring began to rise, Liza tried to hold on to the smooth black tiled floor as it elevated at an angle but even if she was strong enough to hold on, she would not have been able to stop herself sliding uncontrollably into the lower level, Liza screamed out loud as she slid, as the stations interior was lit up by a bright and incredible light.

First there was a bright flash, followed by an incredibly loud roar as Federation Space Command exploded into oblivion, sending large lumps of burning hot metal in all directions.

Cory’s pursuit ship trembled as a powerful shock wave from the explosion hit it, explosions rocked the little warship, the walls began to buckle and a area of flooring dropped into the lower level taking a Federation officer screaming along with it, Cory looked around as her ship was breaking apart,

“Abandon ship,” she called out over loud rumbling as the flight deck fell apart.

The Arien suddenly flipped as it was hit by a shock wave that took everything in its path, inside the old ship its crew struggled with the controls, Logan had tried to ride the wave but it became clear to him that the Arien wasn’t up to the task,

“I’ve lost all flight systems, all instruments are dead,” Logan called out,

“Everything is gone, I have no readings on any system,” Roxy shouted as she hammered at her useless control board,

“Slave, report,” Danial yelled as he strapped himself in so that the violent shaking of the ship would not throw him across the flight deck, the flight computer did not respond. Danial turned to Logan,

“Now what?” He asked,

“Where are we?” Ironside called as the shaking began to die down, 

“Orac, where are we?” Logan asked,

“THE ARIEN HAS BEEN THROWN INTO THE ORBIT OF THE PLANET CENTERO, I FEAR THAT THE ORBIT IS DECAYING FAST,”

“We must get off of the ship,” Samantha called out,

“Nice trick if you can do it,” Roxy countered,

“How about the teleport?” Samantha suggested,

“It isn’t functioning, nothing is functioning Samantha,” Roxy replied with a very worried tone,

“Orac, see if you can activate the crash systems, also try and get some control of the directional flight systems and _get us down_,” Logan commanded,

“Why does this have to happen to me? In three years I have lost three starships,” Logan said to himself,

“Maybe it is time to quit,” Danial said dryly,

“I think so,” Logan agreed,

“If we survive this,” he added gravely.

The Arien fell out of the sky, wining as it spun out of control and plummeted violently into swampland five miles away from the Federations communications control complex, the interstellar class two, former luxury cruiser skidded for over a mile before half burying itself in the swamp, the ship rolled to the left, creaking loudly as parts of its outer hull came away and fell to the marshy ground. Soon the Arien came to rest, its two wings had been ripped off and its forward disk section had come away from the rear hull exposing large parts of the Arien's interior to the elements. The flight deck was ruined, the walls had collapsed, large sections of the flooring had been ripped up, ceiling covers and supports littered the ground, electrical wiring conduit had been severed causing sparks of electricity to shower the floor and a water supply pipe had been fractured, spilling water all over the floor that seeped out of the flight deck through the cracks between the damaged floor tiles, Orac had been totally destroyed, parts of its internal workings and fragments of its outer housing littered the wrecked flight deck, all except Roxy had been thrown from their flight seats, the blonde was hung in her seat, after a long silence that lasted for one and a half hours Roxy began to stir, her eyes slowly opened, she painfully looked around what was left of the flight deck, her eyes were not in focus, she saw a dark blur move in front of her, Roxy closed and opened her eyes, trying to gain some focus, as she tried to look at that dark blur again, her eyes widened, it was a Federation officer, Roxy felt her fear rise before she passed out. 

Kerr Logan slowly came to, he took a deep breath, the air was clean and smelt fresh, he carefully looked around, it appeared that he was inside a medical cubical that had green curtains drawn around him and a window above his head. Logan was dressed in green medical robes, he coughed, it hurt his ribs, he winced. Logan began to sit up as the curtain suddenly opened and an old ebony woman in a nurse’s green and blue uniform rushed in,

“You’re awake, how are you feeling?” She asked,

“I ache but apart from that I’m fine,” Logan said between deep breaths,

“Could you tell me how long I’ve been here for?” He asked curiously,

“You arrived here three days ago,” the nurse replied,

“I’ll let someone know that you are awake. If you need anything, press that button on your cabinet,” she said with a warm smile, pointing at a red button that was perched upon the corner of a small metal chest of draws,

“A couple of things before you go, where am I and where are my crew?” Logan asked, sounding very concerned,

“You are in the medical wing of Centero communications and your friends are in this ward with you,” the nurse said pleasantly before leaving Logan alone.

Logan rose to his feet, his head swam, he felt dazed and confused, he was a little shaky at first until he was able to regain his balance, he took a deep breath, reached into himself and began to heal his damaged body, he stood for a short while, allowing his healing properties to work their magic, once he felt strong enough he stepped out of his cubical, the first thing he saw was six black bags in the centre of the ward under a nurses desk which was surrounded by five chairs, he noticed the silver and white dress that Roxy had worn when they were on Zolaf Four in one of the bags, Logan walked over to the table and checked through the bags, it looked as if all the clothing that his crew owned and their personal belongings had been collected. Logan set the bag that contained his belongings on the desk, he rifled through it, producing his dark blue trousers and jacket, along with a grey shirt, he scanned the ward, he noticed that only six of the cubicles were being used, he took another deep breath and walked to one cubical, as he reached it the double doors of the ward opened and the nurse walked in followed by a man in a Federation uniform, Kerr Logan’s heart sank, he recognised who the officer was, he couldn’t believe it,

“You haven’t?” Logan asked as he slowly approached the man who had once lead him,

“Logan, I am so pleased to see you,” the officer said warmly,

“I bet you are. What is all of this, have you betrayed the rebellion, have you betrayed _me_?” Logan pressed, gesturing to himself as he felt his legs giving way,

“I haven’t betrayed you, or anyone Logan,”

“No?” Logan asked,

“No.”

“How can I be sure Blake? This looks like betrayal to me,” Logan said as he waved his arms around the ward, gesturing to his Federation surroundings,

John Blake turned to the nurse,

“Leave us,” he commanded,

The nurse left without saying a word, leaving Logan and Blake alone together,

“I’m confused Blake,” Logan said tiredly,

“I’ll explain,” Blake said as he gestured to the desk.

The two men walked to the desk and sat down, John Blake cleared his throat before speaking,

“I have been planning this for just under a year, I have achieved on Centero what I tried to do on Gauda Prime before you and I met. You see, my plan was to infiltrate this complex and then take over all vital command sections before removing all genuine Federation personnel and replacing them with our people, rebel people,” Blake explained,

“So all of this is a smoke screen for a rebel base?” Logan questioned,

“That is right, we are close to completing the final stage which should be a lot easier now after what you did. I must say that destroying Space Command was a master stroke, it surprised everyone, although I must admit that Avalon was furious that you did not inform her of what you were planning before you did it, but with that said a lot of people are glad that you destroyed Federation Space Command, that act has saved many thousands of lives. Once the rebellion heard about what you did we stepped up all activities to bring down what remains of the Federation, apparently they are in a state of panic at the moment, we predict that the Federation will surrender inside of the next month," Blake said brightly,

“I’m glad that I could help,” Logan said with a faint smile which was all his strength would allow,

“You did more than that Logan, you won us the war,” Blake said happily.

Logan smiled as he sat back,

“I do not want to be known as any form of legend Blake,”

“You have no choice in that matter Logan, some people are already saying that you are,” Blake told Logan who looked away, obviously not liking the idea,

“By the way, what condition was the Arien in when you found us?” Logan asked,

“The ship is a right off. I am surprised that you and your crew survived the impact, if you hadn’t landed in the swamplands I think you may not have survived,,” Blake answered,

Logan felt a pang of regret, the Arien had been a good ship,

“What about Orac?” He asked,

“That went the same way as the ship, there was nothing left of it which is a shame because that computer would have been helpful in building the new command structure,” Blake replied,

“So, what now?” Logan asked, feeling more relaxed now he knew what was happening,

“I’ll provide you and your crew some living quarters, going by the last medical report that I read your crew should be coming around very shortly,” Blake informed his former follower,

“Good, and thank you,” Logan said as he offered John Blake his hand,

“No Logan, thank you,” Blake said seriously, looking Logan right in the eye as he excepted Logan’s hand and shook it firmly,

“I’ll leave you to sort your bits and pieces out and to tell your crew of the situation, there are changing facilities in the adjoining room,” Blake said as he pointed to a door that stood in the left corner of the ward,

“And I’ll see you later,” the rebel commander said as he rose to his feet.

The adjoining room had three cubicle’s on the outside wall, each one consisted of a shower room, dressing room and toilet facilities, opposite was a row of four wash basins in front of a large mirror and hand driers where hanging on the far wall. The room was very clean and taken care of. Logan stepped out of the middle cubicle, he had changed out of the medical robe, he had showered and was now dressed in the blue trousers, grey shirt and blue jacket, with his battered pair of Federation issue flight boots, he walked back into the ward and checked his crew, leaving the bags of clothing with their owners, it wasn’t too long before the crew of the former starship, the Arien were awake, the bruising that they had suffered had faded and any broken or fractured bones had been heeled,

“What the hell is happening Logan?” Danial asked as he collected his bag of belongings,

“Freshen up and get dressed, I will tell everyone at once,” Logan said as he stood by the bed he had been sleeping in and looked out of the window,

“Changing rooms are in there,” he added as he pointed to the door in the corner,

“Thanks,” Danial said as Ironside and Roxy, overhearing the conversation between the two men grabbed their belongings and followed Danial without saying a word, it wasn’t too long before the two men were fully dressed. Soon Karla and Samantha were awake and had freshen up and got dressed. As the group of rebels sat in the ward, Logan walked into the adjoining room to find out what was keeping Roxy,

“Roxy, are you okay?” He asked as he tapped the door of Roxy’s changing cubicle,

“Come in,” Roxy said as she opened the door,

Logan walked inside as Roxy walked to where she had left her clothes, wearing nothing but a black cotton and lace thong and bra set, her look was breath taking,

“You did get some very sexy underwear on Zolaf Four didn’t you?” Logan said warmly as his eyes checked out Roxy’s beautiful body,

“I must say that I had never seen under briefs like them before until we went to Zolaf Four,” he said in a sigh,

“You can’t buy thongs on Federation worlds, the Federation banned them, I guess they are too naughty and sexy for a stuck up organisation like the them, and until I came along you have only dated Federation people on Federation worlds,” Roxy said with her sexiest smile before glancing at her lover,

“I have no idea what to wear, most of my clothes are ruined, nothing matches,” she cursed,

“Yeah, I lost some too,” Logan said softly as he gently took hold of Roxy from behind, his hands resting on her bare stomach,

Roxy snuggled up to him, after what they had been through she was loving this moment,

“Look, even my rubber trousers have melted,” she said as she picked up the garment and made a display of it,

“Looks like the legs have gone but the top half is okay, maybe you can make a pair of shorts out of them?” Logan suggested,

Roxy grinned knowingly,

“So you can look at my legs whilst enjoying having my bum in rubber?”

“Sounds good to me,” Logan replied softly into her ear making Roxy tremble,

“I could do that I supposed,” the blonde said as she turned in Logan’s arms and placed her palms on his chest,

“I remember when we arrived on Domserrat, I spoke to Karla when I put all my belongings on the bed, I asked her is this all I have, and now I find that I’m thinking the same thing,” she said warmly,

“You have made huge changes to who you are since then, we both have,” Logan said softly,

Roxy ‘s smile widened, she looked Logan right in the eye,

“To think that when I first meet you I was scared of you, you were so frightening, I was so very weary of you,” Roxy confessed,

“And I didn’t think much of you then either, nothing more than a useless waste of space, how things have changed,” Logan added as he raised his right hand to Roxy’s face and ran his fingers through her soft blonde hair,

“I think we have met somewhere in the middle,” Roxy offered,

“I would agree with that,” Logan nodded,

“I see that the dress you wore on our night out is okay, you could wear that,” Logan suggested after seeing the silver and white dress in the pile,

“You would like that?” Roxy asked, knowing how much Logan had enjoyed her when she last wore the skin tight dress,

“It’s up to you, what ever you chose will be right for you, it is you that make your clothes sexy, not the other way round,” Logan said before he kissed her tenderly on her lips,

Roxy enjoyed the moment, holding her man as she kissed him back lovingly, as their lips parted Roxy grinned,

“Go on then,” she urged,

“Excuse me?” Logan asked,

“I know you want to,” she said softly with a sensual smile,

“What do I want?” Logan enquired,

Roxy moved her lips to Logan’s, offering them to him again, as Logan lent forward to accept her invitation Roxy said suggestively,

“I’m in a thong, other than a thin strap of lace my bum is naked, grab it, I know you want to,”

Logan didn’t disappoint, his hands moving from her hips to her silky smooth backside, which he squeezed firmly, bring a soft moan to her lips, when their lips parted they both smiled,

“Here we are, in a little cubical, you are looking very sexy,” Roxy breathed deeply,

“I am wearing the sexiest underwear I have ever worn,” she added as she gently stroked his slightly stubbed cheek,

“I am very turned on right now, and going by what I’m feeling below so are you,” Roxy gestured between them with a warm glance,

“Difficult not to be excited being with you,” Logan said softly,

“Our friends are next door and unfortunately this cubical echoes slightly,”

“That is true,” Logan agreed, his hands now seemed to have a life of their own as they caressed her tight backside,

“I would love to take your clothes off right now but we can’t, not here,” Roxy said huskily, 

“I’ll get dressed, you better rejoin the others, they might start asking why you are in here with me,” she said reluctantly as she stepped out of the embrace and glanced over her remaining clothing,

“Good thinking, I’ll see you in the other room,” Logan said warmly before patting Roxy on her backside, making her smile happily.

Logan turned to the cubicle door, he checked outside to see if it was clear before stepping out, he turned to his woman whilst still holding the door open, his eyes feasting on her, Roxy noticed his loving eyes before asking,

“Kerr, why not let them know?” She had had enough of all this hiding, her feelings were too strong to hide any longer,

“You sure?” Logan asked, like Roxy his feelings had become too powerful and too hard to suppress,

“I think it’s time,” she said with a loving smile,

“Okay, once you’ve got dressed,” Logan agreed, his eyes still looking at his beautiful partner,

Roxy grinned with excitement, her love for Logan was so strong she was sure her heart would burst out of her chest, she wanted to show not only the former Arien’s crew but the entire worlds, she wasn’t embarrassed about how she felt and she wanted everyone know, she took a deep breath to try and contain her excitement as she looked at her melted rubber trousers and then glanced at her sabre, she smiled,

“Make them into shorts, good idea,” she said happily, 

Logan rejoined the other members of his crew, all were sat around the table as they waited impatiently for him,

“Why the wait?” Samantha asked,

“Once Roxy is with us I will tell you,” Logan said as he sat on the last remaining chair,.

It wasn’t long before Roxy joined the group, wearing her cut down black rubber trousers which were now very short shorts, a tight fitting long sleeved black mesh top and her black light weight sleeveless jacket and a pair of knee high leather boots completing the look, her look left Logan breathless. Logan smiled and almost struggled to take his eyes off of his woman as he turned to the rest of his crew, he then briefed them on what had happened,

“Blake is here?” Karla asked with a wide smile as she got to her feet and straightened the green and white one piece outfit that she wore, she was shocked,

“Yes he is,” Logan replied as he rolled his head from left to right, his neck cracked relieving some stress in his shoulders,

“So this place is in rebel hands?” Danial questioned, brushing down the black and silver jacket that matched his trousers, there was a crease on it that he didn’t like,

“Oh yes,” Logan answered, sounding a little tired,

“Where do we go from here?” Ironside asked as he lent forward on his chair who was dressed in a pale blue jump-suit and sleeveless jacket,

“Blake has offered us a place to stay, I imagine that it will be only a temporary arrangement. That is all that I know, if the Federation does fall then we have to decide for ourselves what we are going to do,” Logan said as Roxy sat on the chair next to him that Karla just had vacated, she smiled and moved the chair closer to him, Logan took a deep breath_, _she displayed absolute confidence and she looked all woman and very feminine, her outfit revealed her beautiful and curvy body,

“If that happens, I know what I’ll be doing,” Samantha said as she straightened the hem of her knee length formal red and gold dress, which made her look very regal like royalty,

“You will be going back to Merrica Prime,” Danial stated firmly,

“Your highness,” he added with a smile,

“That is right,” Princess Samantha Windsor answered,

“What are we going to do Kerr?” Roxy asked as she placed a hand on Logan’s thigh,

“I am thinking about that, trust me,” Logan said with a smile before giving Roxy a long and tender kiss fully on her lips in full view of the other members of his crew, all but Karla watched with opened mouths and surprised expressions,

“Since when?” Samantha asked with a wide smile,

“Yeah?” Ironside asked,

“Since well before we met you,” Roxy said, glowing with pride as Logan gave her a firm hug,

“You knew them before the Freedom was destroyed, did you know about their relationship?” Ironside asked Karla as he pointed at Logan and Roxy,

“I knew them when we were onboard the Freedom, yes, and I also knew of their relationship,” Karla confessed as she crossed her arms,

“And you choose no to share it with us?” Danial questioned with a tone that would make any Federation interrogator proud,

“That’s right, you didn’t ask so I didn’t tell you,” Karla replied forcefully,

“Besides it wasn’t up to me, telling you was Logan and Roxy’s decision,” Karla added resolutely,

“We didn’t tell you because we feared that this was how you would react,” Roxy said as she stood up and sat on Logan’s lap, snuggling up to her man, feeling happy that they didn’t have to hide their feelings and finally let the others know,

“And because we knew that if we were in a situation that was a matter of life and death, and if either Roxy or myself were in trouble you wouldn’t be able to use it as an excuse not to help out,” Logan stated firmly as he gently ran his hands over the Roxy’s bare thighs making her smile warmly,

“It also meant our enemies couldn’t use it as a weapon either,” he added,

“Great,” Danial snapped despondently as the medical wards doors opened and John Blake marched in followed by a green uniformed rebel Major,

“What is happening?” Logan asked as Blake came to an immediate halt, seeing how Logan and Roxy were holding each other,

“Why doesn’t that surprise me,“ he said with a smile as he walked to Logan,

“You knew?” Roxy asked, sounding surprised,

“I had an idea,” Blake said before turning to Logan

“I need to talk with you,”

“Sure,” Logan said, he looked into Roxy’s green eyes,

“I’ll be right back,”

“Okay,” Roxy said with a smiled before jumping off of Logan’s lap and watched her lover follow Blake towards the exit,

“Oh, and Karla, could you go with the Major here, I would like to speak to you in my office later,” Blake said, gesturing to the man beside him before leaving the ward with Logan,

“Sure thing,” Karla said as she walked up to the Major,

“After you Major,” Karla said with a grin,

The Major nodded and marched out of the ward with Karla close behind,

“What the hell is going on?” Danial asked, looking at his comrades with a curious frown,

“I have no idea,” Roxy replied as she placed her hands on her hips,

“Roxy, I knew that you and Logan were close but lovers?” Samantha said with a wide smile,

“It wasn’t always like this I can tell you,” Roxy answered with a playful grin,

“I just don’t believe that you and Logan felt this way for each other without showing it,” Samantha said in disbelief,

“That was the hard part especially recently, keeping our hands off of each other has been very difficult,” Roxy said brightly,

“What do you think they are talking about?” Ironside asked as rose out of his chair and sat on the desk, gesturing towards the double doors,

“I would imagine that it is something to do with the rebellion,” Danial offered,

“Maybe they are asking him to join them again,” he speculated,

“Probably,” Ironside said in an agreeing tone,

“With the possibility of an imminent fall of the Federation they are probably discussing what we should do next,” Roxy said as she glanced over her shoulder at Ironside,

“It could be that too,” he said, not really sounding too sure of himself,

“What does it matter anyway?” Danial asked,

“It isn’t as if Logan will be telling me what to do from now on,” he added as he collected his bag of belongings,

“I’m not going to hang around here waiting for answers, I’m off,” Danial said as the conversation between Blake and Logan ended and Logan returned to his group,

Danial stopped in his tracks to see what Logan was going to say,

“Well Kerr?” Roxy asked,

“The command of the rebellion have received a transmission from the remaining commanders of the Federation,” Logan said before taking a deep breath,

“It was to inform the rebellion that with our increased military action over the last few days, the Federation have now declared their immediate surrender,” Logan added with a wide smile,

“The war is over,” he declared,

“Brilliant,” Roxy shouted with joy before taking Logan into her arms and kissing him fully on the mouth with all of her heart,

“I do not believe it,” Danial said with wide eyes, he felt stunned,

“It’s over, it’s really over?” Samantha asked sounding shocked, she had never expected to hear those words, she felt an incredible sense of relief,

“As of this morning, yes,” Logan said after pulling away from Roxy’s kiss but still holding her in his arms.

Blake’s voice came over the intercom announcing the fall of the Federation, all of a sudden the corridors outside the wards and the walk ways were filled with cheering voices, if any of Logan’s crew were thinking that Logan was joking Blake’s announcement was all the proof they needed,

“So that is what Blake was telling you?” Roxy asked happily,

“Not just that, he offered me a role in what they are going to call The New Order,” Logan replied, looking Roxy right in the eye,

“Did you except?” Roxy asked,

“I will talk it through with you first, but later,” Logan said as he turned to the others,

“I think that we should go to the apartment that Blake has so kindly given us, there we can keep our belongings whilst we go out and celebrate with the masses, there is going to be one of the largest street parties ever on Centero tonight, I am sure that you would like to let off a little bit of steam,”

“Sure, why not,” Ironside agreed happily, but still sounding as if he couldn’t believe the news,

“I may as well join the party, once I get back to Merrica Prime I’ll be Queen and I’ll have to act with all the royal graces, so tonight I’m going to enjoy myself,” Samantha declared.

“By the way where is Orac?” Danial asked, looking around the ward for the computer,

“Orac is destroyed,” Logan said sombrely, even with its annoying personality Logan would actually miss having it around. 

As the small rebel group headed to the medical wards exit, Roxy took Logan’s arm and pulled him to one side,

“What is it?” Logan asked curiously, noticing that they were now alone in the ward,

“Instead of going out and joining the party, I would like to know if you would like to stay in the apartment Blake offered us, you and me, alone together and have a bit of fun?” Roxy asked with a suggestive look in her eyes,

“That sounds promising,” Logan said with a glowing smile,

“I knew that you would see it that way,” Roxy replied huskily and with a teasing smile before offering her lips to her man,

Logan excepted her offer, he kissed her tenderly, his hands slipping around the small of her back before sliding down to her small buttocks which he held firmly, bringing a soft moan from Roxy as she in turn caressed Kerr’s firm chest, they smiled as their lips parted,

“You did a good job cutting your trousers into shorts,” Logan said with warm praise,

“I think I cut them a bit too high on the leg, they show a little more bum than I was planning,” she said a she glanced down to her side,

“But you wouldn’t complain about that would you?” She added teasingly,

“Not at all,” Logan agreed, she had so much confidence now which he loved seeing,

“I though so,” Roxy giggled, 

“And where did you get that top from? You know you can see your bra through it?,” Logan said with a warm smile,

“I know, you are supposed to, bought it at the same time I got that dress and my sexy underwear, the moment I saw it I had to have it, it’s naughty and I like that, and I knew you would like it too,” Roxy replied softly as she snuggled up to her man,

“I do not disagree,” Logan said with warmth,

“I’ve got to say, I still can’t get the image of you in that dress out of my head, you made that dress look really hot, and I loved unzipping you from it too. I would love to see you wearing dresses sometime in the future,” he said lovingly before nuzzling his cheek on the top of her head, feeling her silky hair against his skin,

“I’m sure that one day I will wear a dress for you again, I loved your reaction,” Roxy said with a suggestive smile,

“Yeah?” Logan asked curiously,

“Yeah, one that is white, long and beautiful, preferably in satin and lace and hopefully a little revealing,”

“That sounds like a wedding dress to me?”

“Why, are you proposing to me Kerr?” Roxy asked with glowing eyes,

Kerr Logan thought about it for a moment, it was something that had been on his mind for some time now,

“I guess that I am,” Logan said as he looked her over, he never wanted to be apart from her, he wanted to share his life with this woman and grow old with her, he reached into his jacket, smiled and produced a small blue felt covered box from an inside pocket, he turned the box to Roxy and opened it, sat inside was a thin gold band, perched upon it was a single diamond that sparkled in the light. Roxy’s eyes widened and her mouth dropped, her heart was racing, the ring was simple but beautiful, she had not expected him to have a ring with him, this told her that Kerr had already been thinking of proposing to her, she turned her eyes from the ring and looked Logan right in the eye,

“I accept,” Roxy said breathlessly, she felt so excited her stomach was doing cartwheels and she was hit by a powerful desire to take Logan to bed,

Kerr Logan took the ring out of the box, pushed the box into a pocket of his jacket and gently took Roxy’s left hand, he slid the ring onto her ring finger, it was a perfect fit. Roxy looked at the ring as it sat on her finger, almost mesmerised by it, in her life she had been proposed to three times, the first time was when she was only seventeen, she had felt that she was too young then, the second was by a man she didn’t know well enough so she refused but with Kerr she knew all there was to know about him, all of the good things and the bad, but she loved him dearly and she would never want to give him up. Roxy sighed and returned her eyes to Logan’s, she moved closer to him and offered her lips to her future husband, Logan pulled her tight against him and kissed her firmly on the mouth, they savoured the moment, holding and caressing each other before their lips slowly parted, 

“Do you think that we have been successful Kerr?” Roxy asked with her tone becoming more serious,

“What do you mean?” Logan queried as Roxy looked into his eyes,

“You know, with what you know who wanted us to do?” Roxy said, referring to Confusers,

“I have no idea,” Logan replied as he looked into her eyes, gently caressing the sides of her waist,

“I guess we just have to wait and see,” he added as he pulled his future wife into his arms,

At that moment there was a sudden explosion, Logan and Roxy held onto each other as another explosion sounded, they quickly scanned around them, there was no damage, hand in hand they ran out of the ward and into the corridor, to where a window was as another explosion filled the air, by the time they got to the window and looked out they could see that the sky was full of bright reds, blues and greens as firework illuminated the heavens, Logan and Roxy gave a collective sigh of relief now that they had realised that they were not under attack, they cuddled up together, watching the light display for a brief moment as they heard cheering and frivolity coming from all around them,

“It is tradition Kerr, when watching fireworks to go ooh and ahh as they fire up into the sky and explode,” Roxy said as she snuggled closer to her man,

“So I’ve heard,” Logan said before kissing his woman on the top of her head,

“Why don’t we go to that apartment and make our own fireworks which I’m sure will make us go ooh and ahh,” Roxy said suggestively, stroking his chest with a hungry desire,

Logan smiled happily as he took Roxy around her slim waist,

“I think we better hurry,” He said enthusiastically.

Roxy grinned happily, they collected their bags of belongings from the ward and walked down the corridor, out of the medical wing, arms around each other, excited by the prospect of having a night together as the people of the planet Centero and the rest of the colonised worlds celebrated the end of a war that no one had expected to come. 

TO BE CONCLUDED…


End file.
